


Frozen Tears and Nightmares

by Xion5



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-01-17 20:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1401919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xion5/pseuds/Xion5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You all know about the twist the story took when Jack and Pitch fought one another in the frozen depths of the Antarctic tundra. And about the pillar of frozen sand that was created in that fight. What you don't know however, is just what became of that pillar and the immense power that it contained. You see, what was said that day wasn't wrong. Cold and dark go together better then anyone could have ever imagined.<br/>NOT YAOI OR MPREG</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Frozen Tears and Nightmares

Prologue

White.

That's the first thing I remember. That's the first thing I ever saw. And even though I could never have known it…it was the last thing I would ever see.

An endless sea of blinding white stretched out from one distant horizon to the other. Ice cold winds slashed through the frozen air like a steel blade and echoed like the howls of ravaging wolves far below a hidden black sky that was concealed behind thick clouds of gray fog.

Like white paint being slowly mixed with drops of obsidian the sky continued to darken as the light from the gleaming stars and pale moon were shrouded behind a thick blanket of ashen clouds.

Shadows were cast and crawled along the ground that pooled from every dark crevice and bottomless pit that plunged into the ice in deep, jagged slits that opened like the fanged mouths of demons buried deep within the earth - hidden far away from the watchful eyes of God at the bottom of the world within a vast expanse of the frozen tundra of snow and cold, serving merely as dark cages to imprison the evil of the unknown and the monsters that lived in every child's nightmares.

Dull, lifeless white snow fell from the sky and scattered to the harsh winds of the raging blizzard in which not a single living thing could ever hope to survive.

Pointed glaciers rose from the storming Antarctic sea into the air like skyscrapers of towering ice that stood strong against the battering and merciless winds that ripped through the frozen land of seemingly eternal whiteness forming this empty world of endless snow and ice.

It was a kingdom of isolation that was forever stuck in place, immune and uncaring to the whims of time.

However, contained deep within this barren wasteland and at the heart of the ferocious storm that made the earth tremble and the sky scream out with deafening shrieks of nature's raw and unbinding power, there stood a single contrast of color against the constant background of gleaming snow and dull gray clouds.

Spikes of blackened ice shot out into the air from a pillar that stood like a beacon of death at the edge of an ominous cliff looking out over the distant sea, though it remained invisible behind the thick veil of fog and falling snow.

Spears of frozen sand rose up from the ground in a sculpture of colliding powers and magic that had come together like two armies at war on the battlefield in which there was not a single survivor. The razor-like points reached up to the sky like the clawed hands of a demon, grabbing for those glistening stars that shone and twinkled brightly above the earth against a backdrop of unending darkness to extinguish the light and beauty which forced the shadows to flee in fear.

Black and glistening blue icicles cut into the air and harsh winds like solid mountains that the ferocious gales slammed into with pointless brutality as flakes of crystalline white fractals fell from the frozen air in a blizzard that mirrored that of the last ice age.

CRACK!

A sickening crack echoed out through the storm resonated off the towering glaciers of ice like the screams of a madman through the padded walls of an asylum. A single fracture appeared in the center of the pillar's flat wall from the swing of an invisible blade which sliced through the air as time itself seemed to freeze in place.

The wind, the snow and the raging storm that stretched on for miles upon miles in all directions suddenly stopped as if Father Time had willed the world to stand still. Deafening silence fell across the motionless snow beneath a shroud of ghostly clouds in the place of the animalistic howl of the storms gales.

As the storm calmed, the silence that settled across the lifeless landscape was reminiscent of a photograph, forever capturing this tundra of snow and ice.

However, the serine calm lasted no more than the blink of an eye before a second CRACK erupted through the air and a second round of winds came screaming through as yet another storm, without warning, exploded with the force of a sonic blast and a ferocity that was equivalent to a raging hurricane. Its size and strength grew with every passing second as snow fell from the sky and was flung in all directions by the wind that turned the frozen crystals into small, needle-like blades which cut through the air and penetrated the icy ground like flying razors.

Small, spider-like fractures climbed up the side of the frozen pillar that looked out on to the abyss of the frozen ocean from the side of the glacier's cliff. With every crack that crept along the wall of frozen sand the strength of the storm seemed to increase until it sounded like the screams of the devil himself were echoing through the ice.

High above the raging blizzard that could very well make anyone who witnessed it believe that the pits of hell were not full of the burning flames so many believed it was, the pale moon shown down its radiant light onto the tops of the clouds. Moonbeams fought desperately to break through the gray fog that shrouded the earth in a blanket of cold and icy death to no avail.

The light of the luminous orb trembled and shuddered, darting through the air in all directions in search of any sort of break in the clouds that it could penetrate, their actions hasty and seemingly anxious as if MiM himself were looking down on the storm in distress as more and more descended down from the night sky and the spire of shrouded ice continued to fracture.

Crack after crack rapidly shot up the spikes of the pillar until the whole of the structure began to tremble and groan under the strain of the winds' force and the hard pull of gravity that dragged the crumbling spire towards the core of the earth.

And then, as if the forces of darkness had come to life and the sharpened claws of the demons that lurk in the shadows had gained the power to maintain corporeal form, obsidian fingers began to rise from the ice like the servants of death himself.

Tendrils of living shadows rose from the faults in the pillar of frozen sands and from all of the bottomless crevices that stretched out over the land and reached to the sky above. The clawed hands and limbs of pitch black shadows lashed out against the raging winds and contrasted against the snow like ink on a white canvas and towered into the gray sky.

Cold and dark combined in writhing magical strength that made the air tremble between the clashing powers that radiated off of the ice like waves and made the shadows quiver and lash out like whips laced in the venom of poisonous snakes. Flecks of nightmare sand fell from the shadows and the faults in the ice, dropping to the snow like glittering specks of blackened blood. It tainted the white landscape and stood out with the rest of the shadows, as if they were spots of hot crimson falling from the slit throats of the wolves that howled to the moon above and created the storm of screeching winds.

However, as quickly as the shadows had appeared, beams of glistening blue light radiated into the darkness.

Shining lights of mixed shades with vibrant blues, whites and silvers poured from the cracks and wove themselves into the tendrils of shadows like braids of glowing hair and danced through the wind like the ribbons of a graceful ballerina. The braids which made up thin arms and legs extended as she leaped and spun through the air before landing in an elegant pirouette and dancing across the sky on snow white wings that extended from her back like a swan in flight.

A mix of brilliant blues and blacks that were highlighted in a shadowy violet glow twisted and swirled together and interlocked like the fingers of two brilliant dancers as they waltzed across the ballroom floor in furious passion.

The wind roared, and the great pack of wolves which had given the wind its howling scream were suddenly devoured by a pride of furious lions who stalked the spire of dancing magic in a vicious cyclone that whipped through the air and rose into the gray sky. One final crack shot up from the base of the pillar to the tip of the highest spike which climbed upwards towards the gleaming moon above. This last fault cut directly through the center on the entire structure of ice in an unwavering line that was very different than the rest of the lightning-like cracks which covered the pillar, as if it had been sliced with an invisible sword of razor-sharp air.

The center of the crack split up through hundreds of the smaller fractures to form the appearance of a tree from which more breathtaking blue and black light burst forth. The once clear and pristine surface of the spire that reflected the world around it like a hauntingly beautiful glass mirror, thinned with the cracks to become a transparent sheet.

In what was less than the blink of an eye after the final crack broke through the ice and echoed through the air, a single sliver of the black ice broke away from the structure and fell to the ground in silence, leaving behind a deep hole in the spire, revealing the form of a human eye.

As if a single card had been ripped from the heart of a towering structure of swaying Jacks and Kings, the rest of the frozen spire suddenly began to tremble as piece after piece of crystalline fragments of beautiful black ice began to break away from the pillar and fall to the snow and the blue and black light began to fade.

It's cold… white snow…

As the falling ice clattered to the ground against its siblings of frozen sand, more and more of the thin, pale form that the ice concealed began to reveal itself from within the cocoon of black and blue crystal.

What is white?... What is snow?

The face of a young girl was revealed first. Her small, pale face still and her eyes closed gently as if she were trapped within a deep, peaceful sleep. Like a chain reaction, more and more ice began to quickly crumble and then fall away from her body to land like a veil on the soft snow around her.

It is something that is not black...

Long, thin, bare arms and legs stood out against the blackened ice behind her small form, as the front of the pillar fell with the echoing sounds of tinkling glass that resonated beautifully like a wind chime in a cool summer breeze, before they suddenly buckled forward.

So then… what is black?

The body of the girl fell forward in almost slow motion, breaking away from the pillar of ice that crashed down behind her. She fell to the ground, landing in the pile of shattered crystal that broke into smaller pieces beneath her slight weight. The lights of beautiful black, blues and whites scattered in the winds as the whole of the structure finally collapsed.

And then, in one swift movement, it was all over. The howling cries of the lions lost themselves and the great blanket of clouds which had hidden the glittering stars vanished from the arctic world, leaving all still and bright.

Moonbeams, which had been trying in vain to break through the resilient wall which covered this small part of the world, finally found their way through as the clouds dissipated and they covered the girl's small body like a beautiful gown of silver light, pushing back the remaining tendrils of shadows that reached up to the sky from the trenches which ran deep below the ice. The warm moonbeams seemed to make the girl's pale skin glow beneath their radiant light as it covered her like a beautiful blanket.

The wind that had only moments ago been the very definition of violent was now blowing gently over the frozen tundra. Flurries of snow kicked up into the air before they fluttered back to the ground like soft feathers around her small frame. The caressing gusts blew around her, running through her hair like gentle hands as the cold snow fell over her sleeping form, gleaming like brilliant diamonds below the moon's light.

The cool breezes that surrounded her, almost as if in concern, brushed away the strands of black and white hair that covered her face as the small girl moved for the first time since she fell from the spire of ice. A pair of two brilliant blue eyes slowly fluttered open as she began to awaken from her deep slumber.

The girl stared off into the white horizon in a foggy haze; her crystalline blue eyes blinked open and closed as they tried to adjust to the pale light of the moon that was harshly blinding after living in a never ending peaceful darkness for what felt like an eternity. Her eyes were like deep pools of crystal clear water that broke up into small white and silvery ripples that shot out in streaks from her pupils and formed what looked like some kind of beautiful snowflake that flickered up to look at the blackened sky and the shining stars around the beautiful moon above her.

With slow, hesitant and unsteady movements the small girl began to push herself upward off the ground, her head raising out of the cold snow and tilting upward as her gaze locked on to the luminous orb above her.

She startled suddenly and her head shot downward at the sounds of chiming glass-like ice as the crystals of frozen sand moved below her. The girl stared down at the icicles, gently running her thin hand over the cold fragments, listening intently to the pretty sounds they made as they touched one another.

Her already wide eyes widened even more as she looked from the ice crystals to her thin, pale hands. She opened and closed her fingers as she blinked down at them in confusion before running the tips softly over her bare arms, trailing them down her skin and slowly moving them down to her stomach and legs. A light gust of wind suddenly blew from behind her and pushed her hair back over her face, making her gasp in surprise before she slowly reached and ran her hands through the silky black and white strands.

The gentle moonbeams that shined down on her suddenly brightened just slightly, making the ice and snow glitter, causing the girl to tentatively look back towards the sky. She tilted her head curiously as she looked up at the beautiful moon, its elegant light reflecting off of her eyes like little twin mirrors.

She stared up at the luminous orb for a very long time and watched in confusion as the moonbeams around her flickered and danced before a beautiful, deep, kind voice suddenly echoed through her head.

Do not be afraid little one.

The little girl flinched back in shock at the sudden noise, her head whipping around to try and find the source but she couldn't see anything other than the never ending sea of white around her before looking back up to the moon in shocked confusion.

You have nothing to be afraid of, I promise that no one is going to harm you, the voice said, and again she tilted her head curiously while narrowing her eyes. She didn't understand what was going on. She didn't know what was happening in her head or what it meant. But she liked the voice.

It was kind and warm in a way that didn't hurt, and somewhere, deep within the depths of her mind she almost… recognized it.

You cannot understand me, can you little one? The voice suddenly got slightly higher, almost as if it was shocked at this sudden revelation, and what sounded like an almost sad sigh echoed through her mind that made her frown. She didn't understand, but the sound of the voice now made her feel strange…

She dropped her head and looked away from the pretty light.

The tone in the voice became light again and a fond laugh filled the air. She looked up once more, the gentle kindness of the voice making the strange feeling in her chest disappear. Do not worry my dear, everything is going to be just fine. I am going to have an old friend of mine take you to someone who will keep you safe and be able to help you.

Again the small girl tilted her head and narrowed her eyes in confusion before they suddenly went wide as she felt a strange sensation covering her body. Her head shot downward as she saw the snow below her begin to glitter and shine as the light of the moon intensified and she felt herself being slowly lifted from the cold ground.

Her legs extended out from below her as she was lifted to her feet before she was gently set back down on trembling legs, only for her weak knees to suddenly buckle forward.

With a scared scream the little girl again began to fall to the pile of ice crystals below her, her hands shooting out to protect her face in reflex as she fell forward and her eyes closing tightly in fear. But just seconds before she could fall back into the pile of black icicles, a sharp blast of cool winds shot out and her small body was sent flying into the air like a weightless doll, along with small fragments of the shattered ice.

With a sharp gasp the girl's eyes again flashed open, air coming in and out of her lungs in quick, panicked breaths as her eyes flickered back and forth and she tried to understand just what was happening.

Her scared blue eyes darted around before they locked onto a small glittering object just inches in front of her. She blinked curiously at the single glimmering ice crystal of frozen black sand before her that shined like a beautiful jewel. With a hesitant hand she reached out for it, however her arm was just too short to reach it.

She let out a sad whimpering sound as she reached out for the crystal, but no matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't grab it. Her arm and gaze dropped with a sad sigh as she gave up in her attempts before a small gust of wind suddenly blew towards her, and she raised her head again at the sound of what seemed like a soft whisper entered her ears and she gasped as yet again, the fingers of the wind brushed through her elegant black and white streaked hair and caressed her pale cheek.

The girl leaned into the touch, sighing as the cool wind wrapped around her like a soft blanket, holding her in the air like the loving embrace of a mother holding her baby as her body was rocked back and forth in the air.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and widened in a look of wonder as the beautiful ice fragment was slowly brought closer and closer to her small form. The girls hands slowly extended outward and hesitantly grabbed onto the crystal of ice, pulling it close to look down at the sparkling gem, the cool glasslike texture held securely in her small hands and giving off a beautiful black and blue sort of glow.

The crystal shined and glistened in her hand and her eyes widened as it seemed to pulsate in her grasp, as if she were holding onto a living, beating heart.

An unknown power radiated off of the ice like rippling waves, soothing her small form as it poured into her. Her eyes slowly began to flutter closed, the gently caressing of the wind that was rocking her back and forth and its soft whispers that sounded like a beautiful lullaby lulling her into a peaceful sleep before the cool gales began to lift her higher into the air and carried her off high above the water of the frozen ocean.

High above the snow-covered landscape, deep within the walls of a gleaming white palace, stood a short man in a beautiful golden suit and a single springy, cowlick of golden hair atop his head. The normally happy and gentle look of carefree and childlike kindness had fallen from his face, his normally bright and gentle smile replaced with a small frown and his deep brown eyes closed with a look of confused concern and utter exhaustion etched in its place.

Tsar Lunar the XII held his arms across his chest as he remained still and silent, contemplating and trying to rationalize just what on earth he had just witnessed as his oldest and dearest friend Nightlight looked on him in anxious worry.

"Nightlight…" The tall, thin, glowing boy almost jumped back in surprise at MiM's voice when he suddenly spoke. He had never heard his old friend sound so tired before, and in that voice, shrouded deep below clear signs of anxiety and concern, there was just the faintest hint of something that nearly made his heart stop.

For the briefest moment, he could have sworn he heard just the slightest inkling of fear...

"Prepare the silver moon crystal for a transmission to the Guardians. I believe we may be in need of it very shortly." He stated evenly, his eyes still closed as if in concentration.

Nightlight immediately nodded, his eyes widening slightly at the realization of just how important this must be if a message was going to be sent to the Guardians on earth. Without hesitation the light spirit took to the air on a nonexistent gust of wind, the moonbeam in the diamond tip of his staff trembling in nervousness and excitement as he shot out the door to go find Kathrine and Ombric and prepare the crystal for communication that had last been used only nine months ago when Jack Frost had been chosen as the newest Guardian.

In mere moments MiM was left on his own in the large room, the moonbeams that had been in there with him having left to follow Nightlight to go see Kathrine and Ombric.

Slowly opening his eyes, he looked up to the glass ceiling supported by beautiful marble pillars with elegant carvings of Golden Age starships and planets that existed long ago to look down on the beautiful glowing blue and green orb far below. An almost inaudible sigh escaped his lips as his eyes trailed over the white mass of land at the bottom of the world before flickering away from the earth to look out at the beautiful, glittering stars that formed his parent's constellation.

"Mother, father…" He said, his voice light and almost whispering. "Please forgive me. But all we can do now is pray this all turns out right."

With one last brief glance at the frozen white tundra of Antarctica, Tsar Lunar turned his back on the window of glass and made his way to the double grand silvery doors that Nightlight had just left though. Off to try and figure out just how in the name of the great ancient stars any of what he had just witnessed could have ever possibly happened.

His mind swirled with thoughts and concerns for the fate of the small child he knew could very well hold the key to either ending the millennium-long war that had waged between the darkness and light for longer than could even be remembered…

Or to beginning an entirely new war that could rip the very fabric of reality itself apart at the seams.


	2. Guardian

Frozen Tears and Nightmares

Guardian

Far below a full and gleaming moon and draped in a veil of silver light was a young, well-dressed woman quietly walking the streets of Northern London.

Long, wavy blond hair bounced up and down as she walked and blew back in the light wind that glided through the air, her high black stiletto heels clacking on the cobblestone pavement. A small smile graced the young woman's pale pink lips as she made her way home from a long day at the office where her soon to be fiancé would be waiting for her with a surprise of a large bouquet of roses, and a beautiful dinner with two glasses of her favorite red wine.

As well as a beautiful diamond ring that he intended to use to make them both the happiest couple London had ever seen.

An icy gust of wind suddenly wrapped itself around the woman and she shivered, hugging her arms around herself to try to keep her body heat up while silently berating herself for forgetting her jacket back at the office. "He tells you he has a surprise waiting for you tonight and you go completely blond." She muttered to herself in irritation.

She may have been blond but she was in no way dumb. She was a successful real estate agent who sold high end apartments in the upper parts of London with a doctorate's degree in business management. So in absolutely no way did that idiotic stereotype about blonds being mindless flakes apply to her.

At least until her boyfriend went and pulled a stunt like this and called her up out of the blue telling her that he had a very special evening planned for them when she arrived home that night. Then it applied to her.

The woman sighed heavily before smiling, thinking of just what kind of wonderful surprise he could possibly have. It wasn't their anniversary or her birthday or anything important and Christmas was only four days away. Maybe he's finally going to…

"N-no. That can't be it can it?!" She suddenly whispered to herself, her face going about twenty different shades of red as she thought about the possibility of him actually proposing to her. The idea of it made her both ecstatic and horrified at the same time and she could feel her heart pounding against her ribs like a bird trying to break free from its cage.

Completely caught up in her thoughts as she quickened her pace unconsciously as she walked the young woman didn't notice the form of the large man in front of her until she had accidently run smack dab into him.

The woman backpedaled with a sudden gasp and nearly fell backwards onto the pavement, only just barely keeping her balance due to a sudden gust of wind coming from behind her that made her feel like she was in the middle of a blizzard but managed to keep her from falling back on her butt. However the second she realized what had just happened she immediately looked up at the man in front of her with a sorry expression and moved to apologize. "Oh my God, sir I am so sorry I wasn't-" She said quickly before she was cut off mid-sentence.

"Oh, no! It's quite alright miss, no harm done."

The woman looked up from where her head had been bowed forward apology and she felt her eyes widen at the sight of a very tall, handsome man who was smiling down at her. She straightened up slightly as she got a quick glance of the seriously expensive looking black suit he was wearing and the way he had his hair slicked back in a slightly odd and almost…creepy way. "Oh, well I'm glad I didn't manage to dent your suit then." She said hesitantly while forcing a small smile, instantly getting some kind of "off" feeling about this guy.

The man laughed airily and just the sound of it made shudders run up her spine at the dry tone of it. "Yes that is a good thing. We would have had a problem if that had been the case." He said, his face splitting into a sort of half smirk and his eyes seeming to narrow slightly as he quickly glanced down to look at something other than her face.

His eyes briefly glanced over her form in a sort of once over that she would have missed if she had even blinked, trailing over her legs and her skintight black knee-length skirt and the top of her chest that had a decent amount of visible skin beneath a low hanging white blouse. His gaze quickly returned to her face, his lopsided smirk now a full on grin that made her stomach churn. OK, I believe it's time to go now.

"Um y-yes, well, again I'm really very sorry." She stuttered, quickly moving around him to keep walking forward, her hand gripping onto the strap of her purse so hard she was sure it was going to have holes in it. "But I'm afraid I really must be getting home-"

Without even the chance to make it two steps away she was suddenly stopped as a rough hand tightly grabbed onto her elbow and pulled her back to face the man who was giving her a malicious smile and the scream she had building in her throat died on the tip of her tongue. "What's the rush love, you're not just going to leave now are you?" He asked, holding her tighter as she tried to rip her arm away.

"You know, if you really want to say sorry for running into me like that we could always stop by my place for a drink." His voice was almost a dead whisper in her ear and she nearly felt her heart stop as her scream once again died before she could use it.

"I-I'm sorry sir but I have a boyfri-" She tried to get her sentence out but was cut off again by the man who was a good head taller than her. Then she nearly felt her heart stop when she felt the man's hand suddenly start to run down the side of her hip.

"Oh don't you worry about that, it's not like he's here right now right? He'll never have to know." He practically purred in her ear. "Common baby just one drink."

His hand finally touching the skin of her bare thigh was just barely enough to snap her mind into exactly the right state of fight or flight she needed to be in and she started yanking to free her arm from his grip. "N-NO! Let me go!"

The man glared at her and wrapped his arm around her chest to keep her still as his grip on her right elbow tightened. "Stop struggling!" He growled. "All I'm asking for is one bloody drink!"

"No! Let go of me! Somebody help!" She screamed, kicking and struggling in the man's arms as he tried to pull her back down the road towards a dark alleyway.

"Shut up you little- GRA!" The man cried out as she rammed the heel of her shoe into his foot and continued to get away. The pain that shot up from what was possibly a broken foot was just enough to make the man loosen his grip on her and allowed her to get free, but she could only make it a few steps before he grabbed back onto her forearm with a death grip and pull her back.

The woman had barely any time to register the man pulling back his hand to smack her across the face and she ducked down in preparation for the pain that she knew was about to hit her as a final scream rose up from her throat. The man brought his hand down to hit the woman before she could scream out again. However, he couldn't even get five inches from her before he was suddenly stopped…

By a snowball to the face.

The man yelled in shock and cursed as he was sent backwards from the sudden and completely unsuspected strong force of the ball of hardened snow that was planted in the dead center of his face. In his shock he let his grip on the woman loosen and she was able to break free, she staggered forward before falling from the excess force she had used to break free of his hold and looked back to the man in shock to see him wiping a pile of snow off of his face.

"W-what the hell?! OK who's the little bastard who-" He was suddenly cut off as a second snowball that came from literally out of nowhere was thrown in his face and he was sent back again, tripping over his own feet and landing flat on his butt while screaming a very colorful array of curses and obscenities to the night sky.

The woman stared with wide, confused and shocked eyes as he again wiped the pile of slush and ice off of his face and she gasped at the bright crimson that was pooling down from the man's now bent and crooked nose.

"RAH! Whoever you are you are going to FUC**** DIE!" The man screamed as he pushed himself up off of the ground and held tightly onto his clearly broken nose to try and stop the blood that was now staining the front of his precious suit. He glared daggers at the shadows and whipped his head around to try and find whoever it was that was going to end up with a knife plunged into their chest and their arms snapped in half. "GET OUT HERE AND FIGHT YOU LITTLE BASTAR-AHHHH!"

The woman still sitting on the ground and looking on in complete shock watched as the man suddenly slip and fall flat onto his back on a patch of… ice?

Her face talking on a look of complete and utter confusion as she watched him fall, wincing slightly at the sound of a loud crack that echoed out through the air when his head hit the now frozen pavement. He was knocked out completely cold.

For about ten seconds she simply sat there and looked down at the man with wide, shocked eyes as she sat on the cold ground before her gaze was dragged just slightly upward as she notices something out of the corner of her eye.

She had only a moment to recognize the form of a beautiful glittering snowflake falling into her face before vanishing into a flurry of sparkling blue powder and her mouth suddenly stretched into a large smile. A small laugh escaped her lips as she looked back down at the unconscious assailant and she begun to laugh harder.

Tears prickled at her eyes and she was forced to hold her aching sides as she tried to push herself off the ground and continued to laugh so loud she nearly fell back onto her face if it hadn't been for another gust of wind pushing against her and keeping her upright. The woman turned her back on the man and staggered forward as she slowly managed to get ahold of her senses and walked back home to her boyfriend who was most certainly about to become her wonderful fiancé.

Completely oblivious to the fact she was being watched by a certain spirit of winter.

Jack Frost was perched atop an old streetlamp, grinning like a Cheshire cat as he watched the woman head home and walk away from the man who was currently in a frozen heap on the ground, with complete amusement shining in his eyes.

His shoulders were shaking slightly with barely suppressed laughter of his own before a mischievous smirk etched its way across his face and he looked down at the man when he suddenly groaned in what must have been a very uncomfortable sleep. With absolutely no requited effort the Guardian of fun rose to stand on top of the thin pole and draped his shepherd's crook staff over his shoulders.

"Ya know…" He said casually, as if there was nothing unordinary about the situation whatsoever and the man could actually hear him. Again with the use of no effort at all he aimlessly stepped off the pole and front flipped onto the ground, landing beside the man. "When a lady says NO, she usually means no."

Jack's smirk fell for just a moment as he said this and he glared down at the man who was starting to actually come to, surprisingly enough. That look lasted for only a few seconds before his expression changed back into a look that practically screamed trouble.

"So here's a little piece of advice for you…" He said, wandering to the side of a closed bakery and picking up a handful of fresh snow that he had just finished delivering to the northern part of London before he saw this pervert trying to drag a young woman into a back alley, making sure to take some farther away from the wall so it was more wet.

Packing the snow into a perfect sphere he slowly made his way back to the man on the ground and stood right beside his head, eyes gleaming with not at all concealed amusement as he dangled the ball of snow above the man's face.

Without a seconds hesitation he released his grip on the sphere of white and watched at it splattered into the guys face in an explosion of slush on his already broken nose. "Learn to take a hint you creep!" Jack all but screamed in his ear before taking back into the air, laughing out loud when the sound of the man moaning reached his ears just before he could get out of ear shot.

Jack wasn't the kind of person who would ever find amusement in pain or would just hurt someone like that. However, he was willing to make an exception or two if it was to put some pervert like that in his place.

"Hay, wind!" He yelled above the howling gales around him, laughing when he was thrown upside down in response and felt the air run its invisible hands through his hair as if to play. "Take me to the Pole!"

Again in response the wind tossed him around playfully in the air and he whooped loudly as it sent him into a series of backflips and corkscrews while changing their direction and headed for the North Pole. Jack laughed at the winds antics and smirked when he heard the high pitched gust ringing out through the air above the normal howls of her gales that he immediately recognized as her version of laughter.

Over the coures of 300 years with the wind as his only companion Jack had learned to communicate with her pretty well.

Yep, that's right. The wind is a her, and she can speak.

Well, the North wind was at least. The other three were all boys and none of them really saw eye to eye. The North wind was the only one who really interacted with him and she was the only one who he could actually understand.

The four winds all had the ability to communicate with one another, but their language wasn't anything that normal people could really understand and it wasn't at all a normal language. It was more like a series of soft whispers and gentle gusts that acted like touches. It was incredibly hard for most people to understand and as far as he knew he was the only one who could understand them, but 300 years was a very long time to get to learn a language.

He loved being able to communicate with the wind like he did, it was kind of odd saying you had air for a friend but for three centuries she was all he had and he was more than a little grateful he was able to talk with her, even just a little. In all honesty it was a really cool language and he enjoyed knowing it but dear God above it was also horrifying in the right, or rather, the wrong situations.

In most cases the winds didn't really interact because they pretty much hated one another, well, it was really only the male winds that had the problem, North wind got along well with all of them.

Bottom line though was that the South, East and West winds never really interacted much and Jack could honestly thank both MiM and Mother Nature for that. About 120 years ago the South and West winds had gotten into some kind of argument over a storm or whatever and North wind decided to go intervene before they could cause the hurricane of the century over the Atlantic, and sadly, he had been with her at the time.

Long story short he was tossed around like a weightless paper doll in a freaking washing machine and was nearly torn to pieces. Apparently a scream or a very strong insult in the winds language was equivalent to a 130 mile per hour blast of air that was enough to nearly make him crash into the side of a mountain.

How exactly he went from the middle of the Atlantic to the freaking Himalayas in less than three minuteshe had no idea and quite frankly he really didn't really want to.

Eventually everything managed to settle back down with the three of them and Jack had gone into a virtual coma for two weeks after burying himself in a snowdrift. He was thankful that North wind was his partner and not the other three for a multitude of reasons and the fact that she was the least likely to kill him was one of the top ones.

There was also the fact that with her he was able to go everywhere in the world which he wouldn't be able to do with the others. North wind was the only one able to travel to all corners of the world because she didn't fight with the other winds and they all allowed her to go into their territory when she pleased.

He knew for a fact that the other seasonal spirits were all connected to the wind in some way and used them to move from one place to another but they all had to use different winds to get certain places. For that though he was actually really thankful. One of the only ways for other seasonals to get near him most of the time was to come into North winds territory and she was always quick to get him out of there before things could get messy.

One could say that he and the other seasonals were polar opposites of the wind in a way. While most of the other seasonals seemed to get along well enough, for some unknown reason they hated him. He had absolutely no idea why, but that's just how it was. Nearly all of the other seasonals just wanted to use him as a punching bag and for the first hundred or so years of his life he had gotten into some pretty bad fights with them.

He got along well enough with some of the spring and autumn spirits and some others just stayed away from him but the summer spirits? Summer and winter don't mix for a very good reason.

It could just be because he was the only winter seasonal there was. Every other season had multiple spirits to represent and control it under the main season leaders. Every season had a main leader that was more or less in charge of the other spirits in that season, and according to Mother Nature they were some kind of royalty.

Jack scoffed just thinking about it. Oh yeah, he was totally the poster boy for a prince, clearly.

In truth he actually did get along really well with the three of them, they were actually kind of like his older siblings in a way, he just didn't get to see them except when they ether sought him out for something or he had to go to them to ask for some help because one of the other seasonals had nearly thrown him into a volcano or something. It was thanks to them that he had been left alone for about a hundred years after the last fight he had had with a group of summer spirits that had nearly killed him a second time.

According to Hiccup and Rapunzel, Merida had nearly had those guys' heads for that one. Hiccup had to hold Rapunzel back to keep her from bashing their heads in with her frying pan. He didn't know why she used that as a weapon but it worked way better than you would think.

The few times he actually got to see them without their having been some kind of problem was when every half a century or so Mother Nature summoned all of the seasonals for a feast. Truthfully though, if you were to ask him to give an example of hell, those little banquets would be his first thought.

Because he was so called 'royalty' Mother Nature made a pretty big deal about him being there and in the right, well, attire for the event. Those white and silver clothes and the cloak she made him wear were comfortable and everything, and they actually did make him look like a prince but large social situations were just beyond not his thing. It didn't exactly make it any easier that pretty much everyone there hated his guts. (Hopefully the New Year's party North was throwing in a few weeks wouldn't be quite as tense, though he still wasn't quite sure how to feel about the party actually being for him.)

And don't even get him started on those thrones the four seasonal leaders have to use.

Most of the other seasonals hated him enough as it was, but all of that really didn't help matters. He was always the last to arrive and the first to leave when it came time for the party. He knew it was rude and that he was giving up on the chance to actually have some kind of interaction with something other than a giant glowing rock in the sky that never talked back.

But if he had to choose between being alone and spending an entire night in a room full of people who wouldn't mind, and would actually prefer seeing his head on a spit…..

Yeah. He'd take the former thanks.

Mother Nature didn't seem to mind it though and she was actually understanding about it, same with Hiccup, Merida and Rapunzel who would cover for him if he needed to make a quick getaway. Then he would get back in his normal clothes and North wind would get him the hell out of there and help him snap out of whatever depressed slump the evening may have caused him to fall into.

Strangely enough the North wind was about as much of a prankster as he was.

Every time he would fly through a town or city to have a little fun when bringing a snow day, she would always cause some kind of trouble and he would be taken along for the ride before trying to best her. It had actually become like a kind of competition between the two of them to see who could cause the most chaos and more than once Jack had actually lost.

Every time he'd ended up being tossed into a snowdrift while laughing his ass off at whatever stunt North wind had pulled. Though he often ended up there anyway whether or not he'd lost when he bragged about being the master of pranks and she would drop him like she was pouting five year old.

Though that would always just make him laugh more.

Today had been one of those days he'd been tossed into a snowbank for 'being a jerkass' if the translation of what she had told him could be taken the right way.

So the rest of the day had been filled up with making it up to her in a rematch while spreading snow everywhere that needed it, getting everything ready for the large snowfall that he was planning to drop in just a few days to make this year a very white Christmas. North had actually promised to let him tag along on Christmas Eve when he was delivering presents to make sure the kids woke up to a winter wonderland in the morning with fresh snow that was perfect for snowball fights and sledding.

Needless to say the rest of the day was filled with nothing but the wind laughing like crazy as she watched him photo bombing selfies, freezing sidewalks, dropping snow on people's heads and helping to dominate an awesome snowball fight with Jamie and the other kids.

And judging from the fit of what was her equivalent to giggling she more than approved of his actions back there with that sick creep and the blond lady. Jack actually had to raise an eyebrow and smirk when he thought he heard her suggest going back to freeze his butt to the ground.

Tempting as it was, he promised North he would be back to the Pole over an hour ago to talk about the plans for the New Year's party, so at the moment he was focused on getting to the frozen wonderland of the Arctic and the magical workshop run by yetis at the center of it.

He couldn't help but feel more than a little uneasy about the party that was quickly approaching. North had these things every year so it normally wouldn't have been much of a problem, however North was apparently going all out this year and planning to throw the biggest spirit shindig in history or something to 'introduce' the world to the newest Guardian.

And he couldn't help but get the feeling that something was going to go horridly wrong.

Nice. After 300 years alone it's when you actually manage to get some friends that you decide to become a pessimist. Smart move Jack, smart move. His mind mused sarcastically.

Jack sighed and ran a hand back through his hair before suddenly being dropped a few feet in the air as the wind swirled around him. Jack laughed and his smirk returned, used to the sensation of falling and knowing what it means. "Alright, alright! You got me!" He said, laughing again when he was tossed up higher in response.

"Relax, I'm fine. Just… thinking."

Thinking? You? Ohhhhhhhh you haven't had much practice with that. Try not to hurt yourself there.

"Hay!" He called out in mock offence as the wind screeched with laughter around him. Her language couldn't be directly translated to English, or really any human language for that matter. But he could practically hear her saying that in a sickly sweet voice that made him fake gag and just resulted in getting dropped again.

"I will have you know that I am a highly intelligent individual with a complex understanding of the mechanics of nature and in artiest at creating the perfect winter scene for people all over the world to stop and marvel at in complete and utter awe." He said in a completely perfect snooty British accent, exaggerating the word 'artiest' and sticking his nose up like some kind of pompous scholar.

I think you mean for people slipping on ice and snowball fights.

Jack smirked at that and shrugged. "Touché," He said before glancing upward and pointing to the invisible entity. "But I am still a professional and demand to be treated as such!"

Oh yeah, you're a real professional alright. You have a regular degree in being a smartass.

Jack nearly choked on his own laughter when he heard the wind whisper that in his ear in her strange language before crossing his arms and looking back up at the sky smugly. "Yeah, and don't you forget it!"

Then he flipped himself over in the air until he was reclining back and he put his hands behind his head with a sly smirk. "And that's Dr. Smartass to you."

His only response was the winds laughter and to be dropped again before thrown up into a series of flips and dips that made him feel like he was on a roller coaster. Jack laughed along with the wind and let her have her fun as they quickly made their way over the Arctic ocean, grateful for her attempts to cheer him up a bit from the anxiety he was feeling about the New Year's party.

He knew the wind was right. Whatever happened, happened and that was all there was to it. He'd have the Guardians there to back him up of things got out of hand and something told him even the summer spirits wouldn't be psychotic enough to try something in the North Pole that was going to be under total yeti security the whole night.

Plus Merida, Hiccup, Rapunzel and Mother Nature were all going to be there as well, so at least there was that.

The only thing he'd have to worry about on that front is keeping Rapunzel from hugging him to death the second she sees him… and her forming some kind of alliance with Tooth to get at his teeth and hair.

For whatever reason Rapunzel really seemed to like it and would always mess with it when they saw each other and Hiccup and Merida would just sit back and watch while making bets on whether or not she would finally succeed in snapping his spine with her hugs of death.

Her little lizard thing also seemed to like his hair and would always try to climb on his head. Though personally Jack just thought the thing wanted to screw with him because more often than not he would end up with the little creature - he just knew could understand him - sticking its tongue in his ear.

All things considered he knew Rapunzel and Tooth were probably going to get along great and he was going to have to hide out in a snow bank in Antarctica for a couple of weeks.

Still though, the idea of getting to see them again made him smile slightly. He wished he could see them more often, but they all had work to do and most of the time it was on opposite ends of the world.

So he'd just have to make the best of whatever happened and try to keep from freezing some summer spirits to the wall when it came time for the party.

Very soon the glowing lights of the workshop against the vast tundra of white finally came into view as the wind carried Jack through the night sky and he smirked at the sight of a group of elves in front of an open window. This was going to be fun.

You're planning to do something stupid aren't you? The wind asked, but by the light tone in her voice and the way the air started to seemingly vibrate with surprised laughter he instantly knew she was on board with whatever the plan was.

Jack placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt and threw his head back dramatically. "Why do you always assume the worst of me?" A sharp blast of air that felt like a light slap to the back of his head was his only answered and he smirked.

"It's nothing I haven't done before, relax." He said reassuringly.

Without losing sight on the three unsuspecting little creatures he angled his body so he would gain enough momentum to shoot through the air and be able to pull up in time to make it through the open window and manage to grab onto the silver platter of cookies one of them was holding while simultaneously scaring the crap out of each of them.

Yeah, it was kind of mean but this is what they get for trying to eat his staff the other day.

When he was finally in the perfect position and had aimed himself at just the right angle to dive-bomb the window he smirked and increased his grip on his staff. This action sent glowing blue frost patterns up the old wood as he summoned his magic in preparation to freeze their feet to the floor so they couldn't chase after him while he made his getaway with the cookies.

"Now just sit back and watch the maste-"

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence before a scream of agony was suddenly ripped from his throat.


	3. The Ice That Burns as Hot as Fire

Frozen Tears and Nightmares

The Ice That Burns as Hot as Fire

The banshee-like shriek that tore through the air out of Jacks lungs echoed over the white landscape of endless snow and ice far below him. The sound resonated off of the frozen glaciers and towering mountains of ice of the Arctic tundra that surrounded him like an invisible cage.

Jack's hands snapped to the front of his hoodie out of what could only have been natural reflex and clutched the fabric just above his heart in a death grip while his chest tightened like an iron vice. Pain equivalent to that of being impaled through the chest with a burning hot blade of flaming steel irrupted from the core of his heart and shot through his body like a fiery poison.

What felt like the blackened claws of a demon's hand gripped at his lungs and strangled the air in his throat, making his nerves scream out in searing agony as invisible flames licked his skin and made him feel like his entire body was engulfed in fire. Though this could have been his own hand rather than that of a demon that was actually wrapped around his neck like a noose unknowingly in a failing attempt to halt the lava flowing through his frozen veins before it could reach his head.

Burning tears stung his eyes like acid rain and spilled over his cheeks despite how tightly closed they were before freezing solid in the frozen Arctic air and falling to the earth below like pieces of fragile glass.

What felt like an eternity of scorching pain and utter anguish was truly only a span of five agonizing seconds in reality for the winter spirit.

The wind jerked in shock that turned into instantaneous horror as her friend was suddenly cut off mid-sentence and a scream tore through the air as the winter spirit lurched forward like a fist had been planted into his gut. Panicked gusts of harsh, freezing air shot through the air around the Guardian of fun as the wind furiously tried to help in whatever way she could despite the fact she had absolutely no idea what was happening with her friend.

Her whispery voice of an almost completely forgotten language was drowned out by the sounds of Jack's echoing screams that sent wave upon wave of terror and concern for him crashing upon the invisible entity like a hurricane.

The North wind had absolutely no understanding of what was going on or what she could do about it but she immediately came to the conclusion that she had to get him out of here. Without wasting even a second with pointless hesitation the wind moved to carry the boy forward and take him to the North Pole that was not even as far as the horizon for help.

However the second she attempted to move him forward she was suddenly forced back as a blast of electric blue, living ice shot out from the crook of Jack's staff and into the sky like the strike of a lightning bolt.

The Northern wind practically recoiled in shock as the immense power of frost and ice slashed and tore through the air and her incorporeal body like the blades of a thousand swords. The strikes frozen magic lashed out with the heavy gales of the panicked wind and lit up the night sky with brilliant blue light that shot out in all directions. Flashes of the frozen lightning descended downwards like meteors and cut into the mountains of glaciers below the spirit of winter that sent shockwaves resonating over the earth before huge spikes of gleaming ice would shoot out from the ground and pierce the night sky like magnificent deadly spears.

The ancient wooden staff that was clutched in a death grip in Jacks hand that nearly snapped the shepherds crook in two glowed brightly with a blinding blue and white light as Jack's powers lashed out into the air. Ice and frost seemingly poured out from his fingertips and crept up along the entire length of the conduct with every blast of winter magic that was sent flying into the air until the entire staff was completely covered in it and literally frozen solid as Jack screamed out in anguish.

His body, mind and voice screamed out from the hellish pain that was somehow infinitely worse than the sensation of having your air and life slowly drained away beneath the freezing depths of frozen water. His body was practically spasming as he felt his power build up inside of him until he felt like he was going to explode before it would be released with shrieks of pain as another bolt of frozen lightning shot out from his staff before his powers would spike again.

The moment the first blast of ice had been released into the sky the few clouds that had stood above the snow filled tundra suddenly seemed to explode outward in what could be easily classified as a sonic boom.

The view of the glittering stars and the luminous moon above suddenly vanished behind a veil of blackened storm clouds that were only visible for a moment before they were concealed by a wall of falling white that descended from the clouds before one could have even had the chance to blink.

The falling snow was thrown in all directions by the wind that was raging furiously around the spirit of winter and they cut through the freezing air like crystalline blades of ice in a barrage of flying needles, every flake falling from the sky cutting in him and burning his skin like a storm of fiery ice. The storm howled as it grew with horrifying intensity with every blast of power Jack unknowingly released into the sky to create a blizzard that was a hundred times more deadly than the 68 Easter fiasco that had covered most of Northern America in over a foot of snow in less than 48 hours.

The sky screamed with deafening shrieks in the fury of nature's raw and unbinding power that made the earth tremble and even managed to drown out the pained shrieks from the spirit of winter who was writhing in excruciating pain and misery at the heart of the storm.

What minuscule amount of air that still remained in Jack's lungs after the screams were merely echoes in the air felt like cyanide in his throat. It was finally released in one last choked release of breath in an attempt to again scream out in the torturous pain that racked through the spirit's body.

However the lack of air in Jack's lungs was quickly replaced by a strangled gasp of fiery air that passed through his lips as an entire new sensation of scorching pain, that could have only originated from the pits of hell, made itself known.

The fiery torture that tore through his insides and burned him like molten metal without warning became only the second most excruciating thing Jack had ever experienced as what felt equivalent to that of two flaming daggers were suddenly plunged through his eyes and into the forefront of his skull.

Jack's hands instantly flew to his head as he gripped onto his hair and attempted to keep his brain from exploding. The pained screams from before suddenly increased tenfold into shrieks that would have made the windows of the North Pole shatter if he had been even an inch closer as his head pounded against the inside of his skull. His back arched painfully as scream after scream tore through his aching throat and were ripped from his lungs.

He could hear the echoing shrieks ringing painfully in his ears but he honestly couldn't tell if it was his own he was hearing as the pain somehow managed to grow in intensity and he found himself honestly wishing that an immortal could just die if it meant the pain would disappear.

This was not the first time he had made this wish but it had never before been for such a reason.

The Northern wind screamed out with Jack in frustration and every possible bit of concern for her friend and her inability to do anything to help him. She wanted nothing more than to take him to the safety of the Pole for help and for his pain to stop but she was too fearful to move him again even for the mere few seconds it would take her to reach the building.

Out of nothing more than her sheer desperate desire to help him the wind sent light gusts of freezing air to wrap around him like a frozen blanket without moving him and attempted to ease whatever pain could possibly be afflicting her friend when Jack's hands suddenly snapped from his chest to grab onto the sides of his skull.

However his screams only seemed to grow more strenuous as the gentle gales caressed his skin only to feel like a barrage of burning needles was piercing into his flesh.

The Northern wind raged in panic around the winter spirit as his shrieks tore into her like blazing knives and she desperately tried to figure out what to do to help him, but could do nothing as the pain of a fiery inferno burned him from the inside out. The pain in his head and chest becoming the only thing his mind was able to register.

At least until his hand nearly went up in flames.

His right hand that was still tightly gripped around the wooden staff as it continued to shoot out blasts of frost and ice magic, like bullets into the sky, suddenly began to burn as if he were clenching a rod of hot iron. The burning sensation that burst into his palm and fingers added to the already raging pain that was coursing through his body like a fiery poison.

Yet another scream joined the echoing chorus of deafening shrieks that filled the air. He couldn't think, he couldn't even realize or register his movements even after it was too late as reflex and basic instinct took control of his body.

And his staff was thrown into the raging storm.

The wind shrieked in terror as she watched the Guardian of fun suddenly throw his staff away from himself and she lost her hold on the boy as he began falling from the sky.

The sensation of plummeting down to the earth below was completely unnoticed by Jack as well as the winds frantic attempts to lift him up and grab him that were in vain without his staff. The only thing he could focus on was the searing pain that was irrupting from behind his tightly clenched eyes as he fell faster and faster towards the ground with every passing second.

Time itself seemed to slow as he shot down from the sky at sickening speeds, just narrowly missing being impaled by the sharpened pillars of ice that protruded from the ground around him. He didn't notice the towering ice that rushed passed him as he fell to the earth that came only feet away from piercing into him like a shish kabob.

He couldn't notice anything. He couldn't focus. He couldn't think. He couldn't even breathe as the searing pain in his body continued to burn him from the inside out and the screaming of the blizzard and ferocious winds around him that echoed in his ears. That is at least, until a new noise was suddenly added to the symphony of chaos.

CRACK!

Somewhere in the back of his mind that wasn't completely consumed by the agony that was coursing through him Jack was able to make out the sound of a sickening crack that echoed in his head over the resounding screams.

The noise pounded along with the pain and the screams in his skull like a drum and sent literal shivers running down his spine as a small part of his mind was some able to recognize the it but not able to place where or why. His mind was now able to register at least something other than the pain, although it was debatable on whether this was a good or bad thing.

However, it was what happened next that finally put an end to the winter spirits screams of anguish.

But none of'em believe in ya do they? It's like ya don't even exist.

Jack's breath died in his throat and choked his lungs, silencing his piercing cries as if a hand had suddenly wrapped around his neck when the voice of the Guardian of hope suddenly drowned out the wound of the storm of screams and howling winds around him.

His tightly closed eyes clenched even tighter as his hands grabbed onto the sides of his head as the voice echoed in his head before yet another sickening CRACK rang out in his ears and another voice entered the deafening vortex of sound.

Yours is that no one will ever believe in you.

CRACK!

Jack felt his heart clench in his chest as tightly as the invisible hand around his throat when the voice of the Nightmare King shot through his mind before being cut off by more of the horrible cracking noise suddenly cut him as fear managed to join the very short list of things he could currently processes as it repeated over and over again in his head like a broken record.

They'll never accept you. Not really

CRACK!

You're not one of them.

CRACK!

The sickening cracking noise repeated itself after every few words the Boogeyman said and the mental image of the cracking ice below his feet on the surface of the frozen lake made his body involuntarily flinched with every single one of them despite the pain that was still coursing through him.

The stream of freezing tears that was spilling out through clenched eyes from the burning agony that burned him like hot flames continued to fall unknowingly towards the white ground, but only served to burn his skin like scolding water. More voices crammed their way into his head until they had completely drowned out the howling of the wind.

You make a mess wherever you go.

CRACK!

Oh Jack. What have you done?

CRACK!

That is why you weren't here? You were with Pitch?!

CRACK!

We NEVER should have trusted you!

CRACK!

You said you wanted to be alone. So BE ALONE!

CRACK!

What goes together better then cold and dark?!

The voices of the Guardians and the Nightmare king boomed through his head and made his ears ring before deafening silence suddenly washed over his thoughts like a tidal wave as those last three words pounded into his mind the loudest of all before disappearing into nothing.

And like the voices, just as suddenly as the raging, fiery pain that had consumed his body and mind had arrived, it was gone.

Two sapphire blue eyes instantly snapped open with a pained gasp of air as whatever had been keeping the spirit of winter in the form of a petrified statue suddenly disappeared and the pain slipped from his mind to drag him painfully pack into reality.

Strangled moans escaped the Guardian of fun as the freezing air came in and out of his lungs that burned his throat and caused him to erupt in a fit of coughing. His hands clenched into tight fists at his sides and gripped handfuls of the powdery white snow below him and he suddenly began to realize he was back on the ground.

His body hadn't even able to register the sudden impact of the ground when he fell from the sky and later, when he wasn't writhing in the remaining pain that was still afflicting his body despite the lack of the fiery inferno burning in his chest.

Jack's body trembled from strain in the cold snow as he tried to focus on something, anything other than the aching of his muscles and the pounding that remained pulsing in his skull behind his eyes as the raging blizzard in the sky above him slowly began to fade until the falling snowflakes finally ceased. Time moved forward as the pain finally numbed, until all that remained was a tingling sensation that made him feel like bugs were crawling over his skin.

It was one final moan that pierced the air as the winter spirit suddenly started to slowly raise his head, twisting over to lean on his hands and knees that shook under the light weight. Gasps and more ragged breaths lead into harsh coughing as Jack struggled to get his heart rate back to a point that didn't make him feel like his ribs were about to snap in half.

"W-wind!" He yelled, slowly staggering up from the snow and onto shaky legs, his voice weak and horse from all of the screaming his lungs had just been forced to endure. The Northern wind responded immediately, wrapping around her friend protectively and holding him up straight to keep him from falling forward and collapsing back into the snow below him.

With slow and uneasy movements he staggered forward, the wind being the only thing keeping him upright without his discarded staff.

Though more than half of his mind was practically screaming at him to just fall forward into a snowdrift and sleep for the next four centuries.

Glassy blue eyes stared through the hazy veil of fog that covered them and flickered along the ground uneasily as they searched for the missing shepherd's crook that had left his sight only once before in 300 years. Panic coursed through his veins and cold shudders were sent up the winter spirit's spine as he remembered the snap of breaking wood and the pain that had exploded from his chest like he had been stabbed, despite the fact that he felt like he may as well have been on fire mere minuets ago.

Jack's eyes quickly snapped to the piece of discarded brown wood that was sticking out of the white snow beside one of the dozens of pillars of ice that he didn't even notice and he staggered again, swaying in his movements as he moved forward and ripped the staff out of the ground.

He clutched the piece of old wood tightly in his hands and felt just the slightest sense of ease and comfort return to him when he felt the frost begin to climb up the crook from the tips of his fingers as his powers poured into the conduit that he had kept with him for over 300 years. The tingling cold sensation that slowly crept back up his hands and arms to trail down the rest of his body was in instant sense of relief from the pain of the burning inferno that had been trapped in his chest.

The Guardian of fun began to teeter backwards out of exhaustion but the wind continued to hold him in place despite his wish to just quite frankly pass out.

What goes together better then cold and dark?!

Jack felt a sharp gasp enter his aching lungs and gripped his staff tighter to himself while clenching his eyes shut when the memory of the Nightmare Kings word suddenly echoed through his pounding head once more and he prepared for the return of the immense pain of the fiery hell to consume his body again.

For what felt like the endless grip on an eternity he remained frozen in place, not even daring to try and move for fear of the pain returning to actually finish the job this time. He wasn't sure how long he remained like that. He wasn't aware of the passing of time at that moment, and the world around him was nonexistent as far as he was concerned.

The wind circled around her friend as more of her power began to drain away from her and scattered in the air, being pulled to an unknown destination that she was half conscious of while the other half remained by the winter spirit's side.

Her gentle gusts ran through his hair like invisible fingers and attempted to achieve a response from him as he prepared for the returning agony.

After what could have anywhere between one minuet to one thousand years, Jack finally regained enough of himself to force his eyes open just slightly when the pain never made itself known. With shaky, uneven breaths he slowly glanced around him, again only finding himself deep within the grasp of the seemingly endless Arctic tundra. His eyes quickly locked onto the bright, warm lights of the North Pole's workshop in the distance and he felt himself release a breath he hadn't even known he had been holding.

Relief flooded over him like a wave as he looked at the towering building that stood against the side of a magnificent glacier of gleaming white and blue ice that reflected the light from inside like a beautiful mirror and gave the entire, already amazing structure a bright glow that made him stare at it in wonder and awe at any other time except now.

Jack tentatively stepped forward towards the glowing building that practically represented the essence of childhood, intent on flying there immediately and simply getting somewhere he knew was safe.

However, before he had the chance to jump into the air and shoot off towards the sanctuary in the distance he heard something that made his blood run colder than ice.

Jack. I'm scared.

The spirit of winter froze as solid as the very ice he controlled. His breath died in his throat and his chest tightened around his heart as time itself seemed to freeze in place around him and made him feel like he was once again trapped below the surface of his lake.

The memories of pain, cold, fear and death flashed through his mind like bolts of blinding lightning and he felt his body begin to tremble at the mental image of himself falling through the thin ice all those years ago when he had saved his sister. Though he knew in his heart he would do it again a thousand times over if it meant his sister got to live, it did not mean the thought of it didn't fill him with poisonous fear.

However, thankfully or unthankfully (truth be told there was no way to be sure) the memories disappeared as quickly as they had surfaced…

Only to leave behind the image of a blackened pillar of frozen sands.

For just the briefest moment that was all there was. The memory of the towering spire of ice and nightmare sands stood before him like the depiction of a frozen hell. The smooth surface was like a haunting mirror as he looked into it with wide, terrified eyes. However his reflection merely stared back at him with a look completely void of emotion.

The projected image on the crystalline surface looked back at him with dead and darkened eyes that sent a literal shiver down the spirit of winter's spine. He wanted to look away, he wanted to run away, but his body was seemingly a statue before the almost demonic sculpture. He couldn't tear his eyes away from whatever was looking back at him, that he wanted to believe with every fiber of his being was not actually himself. It was almost hypnotizing.

He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't speak. All he could do was watch himself in the blackened ice as deafening silence stretched out around him.

It was only when someone else's image suddenly joined his own on the ice that he was able to rip his eyes away from the dull blue and empty eyes that may as well have been looking through him. However when he saw who this new reflection depicted, he suddenly found himself wishing he could once again be alone with the dead version of himself in the ice as his heart fell into the pit of his stomach and shatter like glass. And there was only one thing he could clearly register in his mind as the form of the second figure looked down on him through the darkened sands of the frozen spire.

Pitch Black.

Fear, shock, confusion, anger and about a thousand of other varying emotions he had not the time nor the ability to decipher, slammed into him like the force of a tidal wave though his body remained still as if he were a deer in headlights.

His mind reeled in desperation to force his body to move as his heart clammed painfully into his ribcage like a bird trying to escape from its metal prison before the two seemed to both simultaneously become a solid as stone with the rest of his body as the Nightmare King began to step forward.

Run! Runrunrunrun! You have to run! You have to move! Run! Get out of here! You have to be somewhere! Anywhere! Anywhere but here! JUST RUN! His mind screamed to deaf ears as he desperately attempted to regain control over his body and do as every bit of rational instinct told him to.

Panic and adrenalin raced through his still veins with every step the man took towards him in the reflection and every step he knew he must have been taking directly behind him as his mind screamed out for him to do something. To do anything other than just stand there! Wide and frightened eyes matched lifeless empty ones as he looked back and forth between his own reflection and the reflection of the approaching man as a scream built up in his throat but died on the tip of his tongue with the rest of his voice.

With every step the man took, that brought himself closer in the reflection behind his own, Jack felt the panic and desperation in his system increase as he tried in vain to move his body. As his eyes flickered back and forth between his image on the ice and the Boogeyman's that was so much like his own, it sent a bolt of terror rushing through his freezing blood.

Pitch's eyes looked dead and void of any sort of life that the man hadn't even had much of in the first place the last time the Guardian of fun had seen him. In that last moment before the Nightmare King's own army had turned against him and dragged him away his eyes had been full if fear and it was a look that Jack could honestly say made both guilt, terror, and something akin to pity grip at his heart despite everything the man had done.

However he had come to the conclusion that he would rather be seeing that look of fear and feeling the conflicting emotions that gave him a bloody migraine every time he thought about it than what he was seeing right now in the Nightmare King's eyes.

His gaze snapped back and forth between the two reflections as he debated on which one made him feel less likely to die at any moment as borderline terror fell over him and gripped at his neck like a noose and strangled the air in his lungs. It was only when the reflection of the Boogeyman was standing directly behind him his eyes manage to fix themselves on a permanent target. However, what they finally settled on was nearly enough to make his heart stop.

The image of his own reflection had suddenly changed somehow in the fraction of a second it had taken his eyes to look back and forth from his own image to Pitch's and what he was looking at now made him suddenly crave for the return of the dead eyes he was just looking into.

The image before him had his face, it had his body, and it even had his staff. But what he was seeing was anything but himself.

His blue hoodie had been replaced by a plain black one that had white, jagged frost designs creeping down the front that looked like sharpened, frozen lightning strikes that instantly reminded him of the spiderlike cracks on the surface of a certain frozen lake. The staff in the image's hand was the same as the hoodie. What was supposed to be a deep brown wood was burned a charcoal black that had solid ice coating most of its surface that stuck out into thorn-like spikes with shining, blackened tips.

Inky black hair contrasted against sickly white skin that was almost a shade of light gray and made his stomach turn at the resemblance in color to the other image that was still walking towards him.

All of it was horrible. Every last dark and twisted detail of the reflection send a cold shudder down the spirit of winter's spine as he desperately tried to look down and assure himself that the image he was seeing wasn't real and that this was all just some sort of sick nightmare, but as before, his body remained frozen in place. Fear gripped at his heart as he and the image stared back at one another and every feature of the dark figure in front of him making his chest tighten around his heart.

However, out of everything he was seeing there was only one thing in particular that made his breath die in his throat. It was the eyes.

Shining amber orbs replaced vibrant blue and sparked with a devious mischief that was the exact opposite of his own. The eyes were cruel and dark and the mischief in them was clearly not there for the sake of a harmless prank that didn't end up with someone getting hurt. The look in his eyes was only made all the more worse by the demeaning smirk he was giving back to him that reviled a mouth full of sharpened teeth like that of a prowling wolf that would have probably made the Tooth Fairy faint in horror.

He looked on at the reflection that smirked right back at him as the Nightmare King finally reached his side and suddenly stopped, going as still as his counterpart and staring down at him with a blank, emotionless look that honestly scared him more than a fiery glare or sneer would have.

Jack's eyes flashed back and forth between the two images, not sure which one was more horrible to look at, but his decision was suddenly made for him as his own reflection suddenly began to move.

With painstakingly slow movements Jack watched as his darker self slowly raised his arm and the hand that was not clutching his staff at his side. Jack couldn't tear his gaze away from his counterpart to look down but he could recognized the feeling his own arm moving along with the image as his heart pounded painfully in his chest. He tried to resist, he tried to stop and pull away but he was not in control of his actions. It was like he was a puppet on strings with no will of his own.

Slowly both he and the image raised their arms until they were out in front of them and unwrapped their fingers from the tight fists they were in until they were both pointing at each other. The two Jack's stared into one another's eyes, blue and amber locking together and unable to look away.

Until the pillar of blackened ice suddenly shattered before him.

A sharp gasp of air was the instant reaction when Jack was suddenly back in reality as his eyes landed on the field of endless snow before him and the towering spikes of glittering blue ice that didn't contain even the smallest traces of blackened sand within them.

He staggered backwards as he greedily took air into his aching lungs, gasping and panting in attempts to calm his rapid and painful heartbeat that was slamming into his ribcage nearly hard enough to crack bone. Once more the wind kept him from falling back and helped him to stand as steady as he possibly could and his mind attempted to rationalize what he had just seen that he knew would be giving him nightmares for the next six months.

What in reality took merely a fraction of a second had felt like a thousand years in the confines of his own mind and his sense of time as well as the world around him seemed shaky and uncertain. The wind blew in gentle gusts around him, running her invisible hands through his hair comfortingly and brushing away the small streams of frozen tears that remained on his face.

Jack felt the freezing air wrapping around him as it caressed his hands and easing the numb sensation on his skin that remained in place of the feeling of burning flames.

He stared out over the snow through hazy and unfocused eyes as his mind struggled to catch up with whatever situation he was now in. He leaned heavily on his staff that along with the wind was supporting most of his weight as he came in and out of feeling like he was going to pass out.

He had absolutely no idea how long he had stayed like this, once more he found himself in a position that allowed him to register absolutely nothing around him other than his own exhaustion and aching muscles that were slowly beginning to loosen as his heart rate tentatively slowed to a healthy pace. During this time the wind had continued to hold him up and whisper comforting words in his ear that he did not currently have the mental awareness to be able to translate.

However long it took him until he was once again able to at least stand upright on his own he didn't know and he honestly didn't really care. The memories of the darker version of himself and the spire of frozen nightmare sand in Antarctica shot through his mind along with the memories of burning pain and invisible fire before a completely different vision played out in his mind.

For only the briefest moment his mined flashed to the image of his frozen lake back in Burgess before it vanished back into the subconscious of his mind just as abruptly as it had appeared.

The second the vision had left his mind his head snapped upward and his eyes widened in shock before he looked over his shoulder in the direction he somehow instinctually knew his lake was in and turning towards it. Jack's already vice like grip on his staff tightened even more as he debated on what he should do.

But very quickly his decision was made for him when a single ray of moonlight suddenly fell in front of him.

Jack jumped back in shock and nearly fell back into the snow, completely on edge from whatever the freaking hell had just happened to him, and raised his staff in defense before he realized what it was. His already wide eyes widened farther as the moonbeam before him trembled and flickered in the air and he watched in no little amount of surprise when the glowing ray of light suddenly shot forward in the direction of his lake and away from the North Pole.

The wind blew more gentle gusts around her friend she was still in high concern for, as if she was asking him what he wanted to do, though again he was still too exhausted to translate her exact message.

Jack dropped his gaze to the ground, closing his eyes and reaching up to rub the side of his head that was still aching in protest to him even just standing up at this point. He sighed deeply before dragging a hand down his face to hopefully work even the slightest bit of exhaustion out of it and opening his eyes to stare off after the moonbeam.

Every single coherent thought in his mind screaming him to turn the hell around and get the hell out of here before the bloody world came to an end!

But he didn't turn around. He simply continued to stare off after the light and mentally debate the pros and cons to getting to the North Pole and then passing out in one of the guest beds so he'd at least be close to someone who would be informed if he were suddenly screaming out in pain of the fiery internal hell that was making his insides melt, should it happen again.

Quite frankly even the prospect of alcohol sounded wonderful at this point.

Truth be told he had never actually drank before. Well, no wait he actually did once because he had been curious. But he had spat it out the second it touched his tongue it was so disgusting and to this day he wondered why so many adults seemed to live off of that the stuff that nearly made him hurl the first time he tasted it and vowed never to touch it again.

However, there were moments where exceptions could always be given and quite frankly if it would help numb the memory of practically being set on fire as well as the pounding migraine that was nearly making him see double, than he was more than willing to give it a shot.

But no matter how much every piece of his rational mind screamed at him to turn around and just try and forget this whole damn mess ever even happened, he still couldn't turn his back on the direction of his lake. He stared silently out over the vast tundra of white snow for a long time before glancing up at one of the spires of gleaming ice that was piercing the sky and his eyes narrowed slightly.

Giving yet another heavy sigh and sending one last hesitant look back at the distant lights of the North Pole, the spirit of winter rolled his eyes at what was clearly his own stupidity and curiosity he just knew was going to get him killed someday and stepped forward. "Hay! Wind!"

Immediately in response to his call the invisible entity sent gales of freezing air twisting around him. "Take me home!" He yelled. Again in response to her friend's request a sharp blast of air shot out from seemingly nowhere and sent him flying into the night sky and speeding off into the horizon in the direction of the frozen lake.


	4. At the Center of the Ice

Frozen Tears and Nightmares

At the Center of the Ice

Large waves rose and fell upon one another in the center the freezing waters of the Atlantic ocean far below a night sky darkened by ominous storm clouds.

The sound of distant thunder and the flash of lightning that fell from the air and pierced into the water like a blade signaling the approach of a distant storm. The darkened waters of the sea far below the blanket of thick, gray clouds were as black as an oil slick, almost looking as if it were the night sky that lacked the thousands of beautiful glowing diamonds that were stitched into the fabric of the heavens above.

The wind howled and lashed out in the sky like invisible whips before suddenly vanishing and then reappearing once more, acting as yet another prelude for the storm to come. Playing the opening act before the curtain of nature rose for the thousands of dancers that would fall through the air as if in a beautiful pirouette.

The slashes of the air's invisible claws however, went completely unnoticed by the spirit of winter as he shot over the Northern Atlantic and flew in the direction he somehow instinctually seemed to know was the way to his frozen lake. The claws themselves didn't even reach out for the boy as he flew through them, instead seemingly to recoil back as he approached on the North Wind's command.

Jack held tightly onto his staff as he was carried hurriedly through the air, willing the wind to take him faster to avoid being poured on and pelted with bullets of falling water that would soon begin to fall.

It was likely the water would freeze solid once it touched him in his highly agitated and uneasy state and cover him in an armor of unmoving ice and at the moment he really didn't want to deal with having to chisel himself out of that right now.

His eyes were narrowed and set into a state of determination as his mind shifted through all of the information, or rather, the lack there of, that he had on the situation and everything he had just seen. Only to come up with exactly no explanation, or even a probable guess as to what the hell he had just gone through.

The pain had completely left his body now, leaving behind only a kind of numb, tingling sensation and the desire to throw himself into the nearest snowbank and sleep for the next four centuries.

The North wind cooed softly, whispering in his ear and running her hands playfully and comfortingly through his hair as she took him back home with no little amount of concern and anxiety about the situation. She wanted to take him back to the North Pole, she wanted him to go and get some help and rest and not to go chasing after moonbeams that she just knew were going to lead him directly into trouble.

Something was wrong, she could feel it. Both of them could. She had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on or what she had just seen happen, but all she knew, and all she needed to know was that it scared the hell out of her. And it was not simply because Jack had suddenly screamed out in total agony and fell to the earth from a good three miles up-thank MiM above for the deep snow he landed in- or even the fact that he had just narrowly been impaled.

It was because she had felt something as well.

She had no possible idea what that had just been. One moment she was hanging onto the boy for dear life and trying to ease his pain in whatever way she could and the next it felt like she was being ripped in half.

She couldn't remember the last time she had actually felt pain like that. She had felt emotional pain many times before. Pain for Jack and the fact that he was all alone in the world, pain for the fact she could not do anything about it other than to take him away from people when it became too hard for him, and pain for only being able to whisper comforting words into his ear that he was only half able to understand when the aching loneliness darkened his eyes and despair managed to overtake his heart before he could push himself forward again.

However, the pain that she had just felt was like nothing she had ever experienced before. It was not emotional pain. It was not the pain she felt when she worried over her friend's wellbeing or happiness as 300 years of isolation turned him to complete depression on more than one occasion. This was different, this was something else entirely.

This pain was physical.

This was supposed to be impossible, she had no body. No heart, no lungs, no breath. She had nothing that could have possibly felt the effects of the physical world. And yet for a moment she had been sure that she was about to literally be ripped in half.

She had felt her powers spike and drop like some kind of demented roller coaster as invisible knives pierced into her nonexistent flesh and she screamed out in agony along with Jack.

It felt like she was being ripped apart and one half of herself was suddenly separated from the rest of her only to seemingly vanish into the storm. Even now, a small piece of herself somehow felt like it was missing which, once again, was not at all supposed to be possible.

Half of her wanted to leave the situation alone, wanted to take Jack and turn right around to go back to the Pole and forget this whole damn thing ever happened. But the other half was filled with burning curiosity and confusion that was winning out over her desire for caution.

Jack was exactly the same.

To be completely honest he wanted nothing more at that moment then go back to the Pole and ask Tooth or North if there was any sort of weird sorcerer magic crap or something that could destroy the last 24 hours' worth of his memories.

The image of those horrible golden eyes and that fanged smirk in his own reflection flashed through his mind and sent a shudder down his spine.

Oh yeah. Every single ounce of his rational mind as well as whatever part controlled what little sense of self-preservation he had was seemingly being drowned out by his more stupid and masochistic self. The current result of this being him carried on the Northern trade winds at approximately 200 miles per hour after a bloody moonbeam that could very well be taking him to a second inevitable death if what he had just felt or seen had been any sort of precursor.

But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't help the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that was slowly making anxiety pool in the pit of his stomach.

Flashes of the memories of staring at his darker self in the reflection of the pillar of frozen nightmare sand shot through his mind and he was starting to feel sick to his stomach. Again those piercing golden eyes and that grin of sharpened teeth made his lungs feel like they were full of water and his vision go foggy with a cross between fear, disgust and about a hundred other emotions that even a professional psychologist couldn't decipher.

Out of everything though, it was the horrible crushing sensation in his chest that was by far the worst of the pain. It was nothing like the torture he had experienced before, it was different somehow. It wasn't a physical pain that he could describe in words. It was just this aching, suffocating sensation surrounded by numbing emptiness. It felt like he had a piece of metal stuck in his chest.

And the sensation was growing with every passing second he flew towards his lake and away from the Pole.

Jack kept his hand clenched tightly around the frozen wood of his staff that was still covered in a thick layer of solid ice, this little fact only serving to set him more on edge then he already was. In 300 years he had lost control of his powers a handful of times for various reasons. Mostly by losing control of his emotions when the loneliness of isolation just got to be a little too much.

However, not once, in all those times he had lost control of I powers had his staff ever been completely frozen in ice. No matter how out of control his powers got when his emotions let lose because he couldn't hold them back anymore.

Yeah, a seasonal having any kind of emotional meltdown never ended well. At all. Ever. For any reason. The Easter of 68' was a testament to that. At least partially.

Jack shook his head harshly to banish the surfacing memories of that little incident back into the depths of his mind. He was already dealing with the visions of that black ice pillar and his bloody doppelganger as well as trying to forget the feeling of his body being set on fire and then dipped in acid. He did not have the mental sanity to be remembering those kinds of past incidences right now.

Every second his anxiety seemed to multiply tenfold and he felt like the weight of the lead that was somehow stuck into his chest was going to make him fall right out of the air and into the freezing ocean miles below him.

This of course only added to the anxiety and fear he was desperately trying to push away as the thought of plummeting into the freezing water combined with memories of that day 300 years ago flashed through his mind and repeated over and over again in a seemingly never ending circle of pain and depression.

Again he shook his head harshly as he tried and failed to clear his head before looking up to the sky and locking his eyes with the luminous orb above him that stood against a sea of gleaming stars. The radiant light of the moon seemed to be following him as he flew over the ocean, covering him in a silvery veil.

In truth though he was only made more nervous by the cover of pale light.

"Wind!" He yelled to the air around him. "We need to hurry! Get me there as fast as you can!" He didn't have to say anything more before he felt himself exponentially picking up speed as the North wind responded to his request.

He shot through the air, attempting to avoid the building storm just a ways off to keep from being struck by lightning. He could honestly say first hand that it wasn't a fun time. The wind rushed through his hair and lightly tugged at his clothes as she pulled him forward, feeling his distress and completely being able to relate in the emotion.

The dark clouds and the fog that covered the sky around him hindered his already only partly focused vision as the sound of thunder grew louder and more ominous. However, he soon felt his eyes widen as he was able to make out something through the dense fog in the distance ahead of him.

The moonbeam that he had been following back from the Arctic tundra was shining in the distance, flickering rapidly like some sort of siren.

Jack's eyes narrowed slightly in question as he again felt the wind around him pick up speed and he flew forward towards the gleaming light, only for it to again shoot off before he could reach it, almost as if it were beckoning him to follow.

As if I needed another reason. He thought in irritation while rolling his eyes. Once more feeling the piece of metal imbedded in his chest grow in size and weight as the realization of just how completely wrong this situation continued to feel.

Jack quickly follow after the beam of light as it would stop and flash, waiting for him to catch up before taking off again in the direction of his lake.

This pattern continued to repeat for what felt like an eternity of mental torture and more than once Jack nearly told the wind to just turn around and take him back to the North Pole. However, every time he still was unable to do it. He couldn't bring himself to stop now no matter how much he wanted to and he was cursing himself, the moon, and pretty much everything else there was to curse the entire damn time.

It didn't really make any sense but it sure as hell made him feel better.

Eventually though the seemingly never-ending game of 'follow the moonbeam and pray to don't get hit by a bolt of lightning and fall to your second watery death" did actually come to an end as the view of Burgess forest finally appeared in the distance.

Jack didn't even bother to remain in the air as the forms of the hundred dead trees darted past below him. With a silent request to the wind he was quickly lowered to the ground in the center of the forest, choosing to run the rest of the way to his lake if only to rid himself of the anxious feeling of the weight in his chest making him drop out of the sky.

Though much to his disappointment, the lack of that particular bit of anxiety did little to make him feel any better. It was actually replaced with the feeling of his legs nearly buckling beneath him and sending him passed out into the snow which he was just barely able to ignore.

The landing was rough and nearly sent him falling flat onto his face as he was unable to slow himself down enough to avoid almost running headlong into the trunk of a tree. He was only able to avoid that painful fait because the North wind was in a just slightly more conscious state at the time and was able to catch him before he was able to give himself another concussion.

Yes, that wouldn't have been the first time he had been sent flying painfully into a tree.

North wind had actually found herself grateful on more than one occasion that Jack was already dead. It made it much harder for him to die a second time since the moon made him an immortal, but it sadly didn't mean he was completely immune to head injuries and nearly being impaled on multiple occasions by sharp branches.

Quite frankly the list of injuries he had sustained over the years just because of those kinds of incidences would likely make any medical doctor go into cardiac arrest.

Jack staggered forward as the wind helped him catch himself, a burst of sharp pain shooting up his right leg from his ankle as he broke into a fast sprint through the trees. He ignored both the aching in his leg and the stinging in his lungs as cold air shot in and out of his throat, his chest heaving up and down heavily as he ran and his hand continuingly tightening in a vice-like grip around his staff.

The only thing successfully making him cringe from the pain being the stinging sensation of sharpened needles of ice piercing into his palm that were nearly sharp enough to draw blood.

Jack ran, weaving through the bare trees of the forest as he easily navigated his way quickly towards his frozen lake at the edge of the small town just outside of the forest.

This place had been his home for the past 300 years. After all that time he had come to know every single detail of this forest and thus had absolutely no trouble finding his way, even in the dense, foggy darkness of the night that was lit up only by the small amount of moonlight breaking through the thick clouds that covered the sky.

Jack wasn't really thinking as he sprinted forward, only unconsciously ducking and dodging low hanging branches of dead trees and bounding over large exposed roots as his bare feet hastily made prints in the freshly fallen snow below him. He had absolutely no idea what to expect to find when he arrived at his lake but with every quickened step the feeling that what he was going to find was not going to be good became more and more real to him.

The wind rushed passed him and he could feel his heart pounding painfully against his ribs as if it were trying to break its way out of his chest. He could only see what was in front of him as the rest of reality seemed to disappear into the background of darkened shadows as if he were in some kind of dream.

Jack suddenly shook his head and he seemed to pick up another burst of speed as a sudden realization slapped him across the face. This isn't a dream. He thought.

This is a nightmare.

Or rather he found himself almost wishing it was. If it was a nightmare then at least he'd know he was going to wake up. He'd know that this madness would eventually come to an end and that it wasn't real. He'd be able to at least try and forget the whole damned thing as soon as it was over, or rather, right after he went and kicked the Nightmare King's ass for the tainted dream that would likely be burned into his mind for the rest of eternity.

But as much as he would have loved to believe it, he knew that this wasn't a dream.

If this entire thing had been a dream then he wouldn't have felt the searing agony of having sulfuric acid being injected into his veins or the stabbing pain of the ice cutting into his palm. Nor would he be able to feel through his trancelike haze the stinging of sharp rocks and broken twigs cutting into his now bleeding feet.

A fact that Tooth would probably scream at him about later after she had made him get medical attention from the yetis and crushed him to death in a hug while telling him how reckless he is. All the while happening with Baby Tooth clinging to him like glue with some other mini fairies asking if he was OK before joining in their mother's rant.

So, no. No matter how much he would have loved for this all to have been some sick and twisted dream, it wasn't. This was real. And that's what made it the most unnerving.

Jack felt his eyes widen as he finally was able to make out the break in the trees that he knew lead out onto the frozen water and the dim light of the sleeping town's street lamps glowing in the distance. His already Olympic runner speed suddenly increased with another burst of adrenalin as he ran through the trees, his long legs moving fluidly and vaulting him over large upturned trees, roots and boulders with impossible agility.

The pounding in his chest continued to drum against his ribs and his lungs burned painfully as they struggled to keep up with the gasps of freezing air that shot in and out of his throat in quick, staggered breaths.

His mind was only able to register that he was moving forward and the obstacles that blocked his path as he dodged and bounded over them. Not noticing the small patches of ice that suddenly began to bloom from the ground like beautiful, spiked flowers with every step he took and actually glowed a faint silvery blue.

The ice lit up the forest with a pale light below the few moonbeams that were able to break through the clouds. The air dropped rapidly in temperature as Jack's powers radiated off of him, growing stronger and stronger with every step he took towards the lake and his emotions lashed out and exploded from anxiety and something else he could in no way explain.

Winter magic seeped into the air and ground, the trunks of trees turning white with gleaming frost and icicles as he ran past them. It was only when a thick layer of frozen white fractals began to fall from the darkened sky that he was able to just slightly return to the edge of reality.

Jack's eyes momentarily glanced up in confusion and he silently cursed when he realized the sudden spike in his powers that he could feel radiating into the earth and sky unintentionally and he attempted to calm himself.

The ice spiking out of the ground finally ceased as he forced down his emotions. Sadly though, it did little to stop the falling snow that was getting heaver with every passing second.

At least it was close to Christmas and not Easter this time around.

Finally the break in the trees that lead out to the small cliff overlooking the frozen lake came into view in the distance. Jack felt his jaw clench tightly and his eyes narrow as his teeth ground together in a way that would likely have sent Tooth into a coma for the next century. His stomach twisted into tight knots as his lungs finally managed to receive a break as he choked on air and his breath was strangled in his throat.

Please let nothing be there, please let nothing be there, please let nothing be there! His mind raced as this one thought was rapidly repeated in silent prayers to God, MiM, the universe, to anyone or thing that could possibly make this nightmare end.

The high speed sprint that he had broken into nearly three miles back suddenly came to abrupt and nearly crashing halt as Jack finally burst through the trees and into the light of the pale moon that showered the ice of the frozen lake like a radiant silver veil.

The gleaming moonbeams shown down from the sky through the smallest break in the blackened clouds revealing the luminous orb above. The soft light glistening off of the sparkling and untainted snow that was slowly fluttering to the ground, that was already covered in an elegant white blanket.

Like beautiful ornaments, crystalline icicles hung delicately from the bare branches of every tree, catching the moon's light and reflecting it like mirrors to make each one glow like iridescent lanterns. That light only added to the immense beauty of the crisp and freshly fallen snow by making it sparkle like millions of diamonds scattered along the forest floor that was a sharp but enchanting contrast to the vast sky of darkness above. The soft breeze of the Northern wind's presence blew through the trees, gently caressing the icicles and making them lightly touch one another to create bell like chimes that echoed through the otherwise silent air.

The shadows of the night had been banished to the edges of the clearing's tree line by the moonbeams that danced through the air as if they were preforming in some magnificent ballet that was perfectly synchronized with the musical chimes of the sparkling ice and the lulling melody of the gentle wind.

Their stage being the frozen surface of the lake, which was surely the most beautiful part of the show.

The clear and glasslike ice acted like one giant mirror surrounded by the smaller icicles that paled in comparison to its beauty. Silver light that was accented with pale blues and whites reflected off of the surface with a soft glow that lit up the forest around it in a pale light. The moon's form was also reflected, its image appearing in the ice at the center of the frozen water.

The light from the sky that was being shown off of the ice almost making it seem as if there were actually two moons, competing to see who was the most beautiful and who could banish the darkness farther into the cover of the trees.

The entire scene was like something out of the pages of a fairy tale, a winter wonderland that captured the true essence of winter's grace and beauty that so many turned their heads from for fear of the cold. Like a grand painting come to life, that no one would ever be able to imagine actually appearing before them in the real world and would leave the viewer gaping in awe at its immeasurable beauty.

Jack froze like solid the second he broke the tree line, his feet sinking into the crisp and freshly fallen snow below him as his eyes went wide. The scene before him was exactly the reason why he loved winter.

The elegant beauty and purity that came with everything covered in a thick blanket of gleaming white that could be seen even in near complete darkness. The beautiful music that was played with the simple touching of two small icicles in a gentle breeze that was like the melody of an old music box that such a trinket could never truly recreate.

The way the snow and ice shined and sparkled with even the smallest bit of light and gleamed like diamonds on the ground. The way the wind would kick up flurries of the white powder that would swirl and dance through the air in a waltz that was enchanting to the eye. The uniqueness of every single snowflake that fell from the sky that would never again be recreated, like billions upon billions of masterpieces descending to the ground that almost no one took the time to appreciate.

And all of this serving as the perfect scene for people in nearly all walks of life. From children playing together in snowball fights that would make the air vibrate with laughter, to couples that had been together for only a day to fifty years taking a stroll through the park just to be with one another and share in the sight of nature's beauty. Of winter's beauty.

Oh yes, this is exactly the reason Jack Frost love winter. This is why even after 300 years he still loved nothing more than trying to create works of art exactly like this one that was prefect in nearly every way.

Whether or not everyone took the time to even bother glancing at his work, he didn't care. Just as long as there were those few who would stop and stare, who would smile because of what he had made, and as long as there where children who could find happiness because of what he did, that was more than enough for him.

This was the kind of winter wonderland he would always strive to create, like a dedicated artist who put his entire heart and soul into every piece of work he created. And what was standing before him now was arguably the most beautiful he would have ever seen in 300 years of striving to create the ultimate masterpiece.

However, he was not staring at the elegant beauty of his own element that surrounded him. His eyes were wide, his breath had long since died, and he was unsure whether or not his heart had actually stopped beating.

But, it was not the breathtaking world of living art and beauty that cut his breathing short, nor was it the aweing beauty of it all that made his eyes go wide. And, it was not in pride that his heart felt like it had just been crushed in his chest.

No. This is because he was not looking at the magic. He wasn't listening to the music. He wasn't even able to notice a single piece of his work. And he was not staring at the immense beauty that surrounded him, no.

He was staring at the small girl lying still at the center of the ice.


	5. Frightened Tears of Unseen Dreams

Frozen Tears and Nightmares

Frightened Tears of Unseen Dreams

Jack had long sense lost count of just how many times he felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest.

He wasn't sure how many times he had felt his breath shrivel up and die as his voice was strangled in his lungs as if he had a nose wrapped around his neck. He didn't know how often his hand had clenched like a tightened vice around the twisted wood of his now completely frozen staff or if it even had.

The Guardian of fun's body was like a sculpture of ice as he looked down from the small cliff overlooking the frozen lake he had risen from just over 300 years ago and down onto the small child who was laying as still as death at the center of the ice.

His lungs couldn't decide whether or not he was supposed to be hyperventilating or not breathing at all as staggered and sharp gasps alternated with choked and ragged breaths that made his lungs burn as if he were back under the lake.

Sapphire blue eyes widened exponentially as his jaw clenched painfully, making his teeth ache as they ground together in a way that probably would have made Tooth drop dead if she were there.

If he were in any less of a petrified state of both mind and body he would have been able to realize what he was doing and feel a shudder of absolute terror rack his spine at the thought of what Tooth was going to do to him later when she surly found some kind of damage to his enamel or some other weird crap that only her or a professional dentist could accurately recognize.

That is if she didn't just fine a bunch of cracks. At any other time Jack would have realized this and would have probably shrieked like a little girl with a spider in her hair for fear of what she was going to do to him.

Not for a single second did Jack's gaze move from the child in front of him as his heart continued to drop into the pit of his stomach and then proceed to try to jump out of his throat. His eyes remained completely locked on her as he took in every detail of what he was seeing as his mind desperately racked to processes and comprehend what was happening.

He wanted to move. He wanted to scream. He wanted to do something, anything other than just stand there like a damned statue!

Every fiber of his being was telling him to move, multiple parts of his brain screaming bloody murder at him that told him to run. His mind was practically screeching as it told him to go to her, take her in his arms and flee to the North Pole as fast as he possibly could for reasons he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

But his arms stiffened, his body froze like a marble statue as his feet suddenly turned into lead bricks and he couldn't move. His mind and body were in an all-out war with one another as his brain told his body to go forward but his body simply refused to move even a single step as it froze like a deer in headlights.

He couldn't do anything. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think.

The only thing he could do right now was stand and stare, taking in every detail of what he was seeing as his brain still fruitlessly fought to get his body to move and go to the girl.

She was lying at the center of the frozen lake, completely still as glistening snow silently continued to fall from the sky, a thin layer draping over her body like a delicate veil of fine lace. But despite the blanket of powdered snow she still stood out like a drop on black ink on a blank white canvas.

Strands of the end of her ebony hair pooled like a black river atop the snow that seemed to almost be absorbing the pale silver light descending down from the moon above, making the sparkling crystals around it look almost dull and gray. Only the ends of her hair visible as the rest of her head was covered in the beautiful white snow.

The little girl's back was facing towards him, concealing the view of her face as her arms and legs curled slightly in towards her chest as if they were trying to conserve warmth while the cold slowly seeped into her small body. Slowly extinguishing the warm flame of life that was flickering like a small candle in a storms gales as death began to descend like a curtain in the final act of some kind of sick play.

Jack felt his body begin to tremble as the memory of every individual death he had ever seen caused by winter's cold embrace suddenly flashed across his eyes.

The dizzy feeling that was already threatening to bring him to his knees combined with his petrifying shock and panic over just what he was seeing only managed to increase tenfold as guilt pooled in the pit of his stomach, only adding to the raging hurricane of emotions that was already tearing him apart from the inside out.

Visions of people sleeping in the streets during blizzards and what happened to them because of it flashed through his mind and he felt his stomach lurch slightly as if he were about to throw up.

He somehow remembered every single time he had seen something like that, every last tiny detail from the varying pained expressions that were etched into all of their faces to the slight rise and fall of their chests that would slowly grow smaller and smaller until the only movement that could be seen was the falling snowflakes descending from the clouds in flurries of harsh wind.

He knew that if he really tried, he could probably count them all out.

For many people they would have long ago lost track after 300 years of seeing the same scene play out over and over again, but for him, the imaged were forever burned into his brain. He'd never be able to forget them, no matter how much he may have wanted to.

He knew there wasn't anything he could do about it, there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. Winter had to come, it was part of life. When he had first become a spirit he had tried to hold his powers back and keep it at bay until he felt like he was going to explode and the pain was so bad he could hardly breathe. After that it didn't take long for his powers to suddenly go postal and he was forced to release them before he was ripped apart.

The result was the largest blizzard central Europe had seen in over four centuries in the middle of November.

He knew there was nothing that could be done about it, he knew that. But no matter how much he tried to tell himself that, that it wasn't his fault, he always felt like it somehow was.

Jack was a winter spirit. The winter spirit. So everyone who had died in it, whether from the freezing cold or driving on roads covered in ice, how could he not feel responsible? When it was your time it was your time. No matter who you are, who you're with, what you're doing, it doesn't matter. You will die when you are meant to.

People died every day and in every season, long before he had been made the spirit of winter people had died in snowstorms from the cold and starvation. That was just how the world worked.

But that doesn't make it any less painful to know that he was the one who brought some of it.

And now, seeing this child laying out in the center of his frozen lake and covered in ice and snow he felt his heart give a near audible crack that echoed hauntingly in his head like the sounds of shattering glass. Or rather, like the sounds of shattering ice directly below his feet.

Jack shuddered as the noise was suddenly accompanied by a brief image of his sister standing atop the spiderlike cracks in the middle of the lake, fear shining in her eyes and terror taking place of the happy smile she had been wearing only seconds before.

The image was frozen in place in his eyes, stuck in time like a photograph of what had been the most terrifying experience of his life despite how calm and in control he may have acted. Truth be told he had been scared out of his mind. But not for himself, no, never for himself. The only thing that mattered to him was that his sister was alright. Whatever happened to him didn't matter just so long as she was alright.

And the sacrifice he made to ensure that was one he would have gladly made a thousand times over if he had to.

Jack's thoughts and emotions were like a raging hurricane that made his head pound like a drum, only adding to the searing migraine hat had long sense erupted in the back of his skull as what felt like a clawed hand clutched his heart with every intent to rip it out if him and crush it to dust.

And he was only snapped back into reality when he suddenly managed to register the feeling of sleek, glasslike ice beneath his bare feet.

Or rather, the sharp stinging pain that shot up the nerves in his leg like small bolts of lightning. The freezing temperatures of the ice that he was more than supposed to be used to seeping into the deep, open cuts that had been gashed into them by running over sharp sticks and rocks. The bleeding had finally stopped and would likely be completely healed very soon. Though he hadn't even noticed they had been bleeding in the first place, but the stinging pain that shot up his leg when he stepped out onto the ice was enough of a wakeup call to pull him roughly back into reality.

Already wide eyes widened even more as a sharp gasp of air shot down Jack's throat when he finally managed to processes that he was now standing on the ice.

For the first time sense he had arrived Jack's eyes dropped from the young girl and looked down to the silvery blue surface of the frozen lake that was still slightly visible beneath the thin veil of snow above it and gleaming brightly in the light of the pale moon.

He had been so caught up in his memories of 300 years' worth of death he didn't even realize when his feet had begun to move forward towards the ice, his body moving without his control as if he were in some kind of trance.

Jack's gaze left the little girl for only a fraction of a second before they almost instantly snapped back to her and he finally realized how much closer he was to her.

He couldn't even question how he could have missed this little detail, his brain already scrambling desperately just to try and rationalize what he was seeing or even just dispute it once more and pass it off as some sort of twisted nightmare that he was going to kick the Nightmare King's ass for later.

He was failing miserably.

His eyes continued to scan over her small body, instantly noting the paleness of her skin beneath the blanket of snow and he felt his heart once more fall into the pit of his stomach, this time actually remaining there rather than trying to leap out of his throat as he was able to notice something he had absolutely no idea in the seven depths of hell he hadn't noticed before now.

She wasn't wearing any clothes.

The only thing that covered her thin frame was the thin blanket of white snow, concealing parts of her bare arms and legs along with the top of her head and lower back.

Jack could hear his heart pounding in his ears as the freezing night air in his lungs suddenly seemed to burst into burning flames and his death grip on the twisted old wood of his staff went slack. Nearly causing the shepherds crook to fall into snow and only held in place by the ice on the staff that had now frozen the wood to the palm of his hand as his mind instantly jumped to the worst possibility conclusion.

Fear coiled around his neck like a writhing serpent about to devour it's pray, its fangs piercing into his flesh as venom flowed through his veins and kept him as petrified as a stone statue. However would later find himself thanking MiM above that this feeling did not last long.

The thought she might be dead but he breathed a sigh of little relief as he noticed the slight rise and fall of the little girl's chest that he could clearly see now that he was closer and hope suddenly bloomed in his heart and the coils of the snake around his windpipe suddenly loosened as his ability to breath finally returned.

With that one realization that may as well have been a slap to the face Jack was suddenly ripped out of whatever sort of trance he was in and roughly dragged back into reality. Whatever had been keeping in the form of a petrified ice statue vanished in an instant while a gasp of cold night air shot down his throat like a bullet.

As if somehow sensing that the winter spirit's sudden return to the fully conscious world the pale, silver moonbeams that descended down from the sky suddenly began to brighten over her sleeping form at the center of the lake and before he could even realize what he was doing Jack broke out into a sprint toward her still body.

Jack skidded to his knees as he dropped right next to the child, his staff falling from his hands and clattering on the surface of the ice as he reached down and pulled her small body into his arms. Not once even questioning just how he was actually able to touch the girl as he quickly removed her body off of the frozen water and held her in his lap while supporting her head.

The little girl's lips parted just slightly and Jack gave yet another sigh of complete relief at the slight sound of air coming in and out of her lungs and felt her chest rising and falling against his.

Oh thank you God… He thought, his mind seeming to also be breathing a breath of complete and utter relief as the realization that she was still alive continued to flash repeatedly through his brain. However his relief did not last long as he realized that she wasn't waking up.

"Wake up, please you have to wake up…" He supported the back of her head with his hand while shaking her shoulder with the other, desperately trying to make the sleeping girl open her eyes and confirm the fact that she was still alive.

"Common you have to wake up. You need to wake up!" His voice grew in volume and intensity as he lightly shook her small form in attempts to rouse her. "Please, please you can't sta-…" Jack's voice suddenly trailed off as his eyes went wide as dinner plates, his hands freezing to stop shaking her as he finally noticed something that nearly made his heart stop in shock.

His gaze had traveled up from the girl's sleeping face, subconsciously noticing something in his puerperal vision that made him freeze in place as his eyes snapped to look up just slightly at the child's hair.

Her black and white hair.

Jack felt his jaw drop open slightly in shock, the only thing keeping it from falling through the ice like a rock being the slight return of petrification that again made his body become like a stiff statue, though it was far less paralyzing as it was before.

Her long, silvery white hair flowed through his fingers as it draped down into the crystalline snow as it slowly began to darken. The pure white was tainted about half way down its full length; turning from its pristine snow like state into a dull gray that gradually blackened the closer it came to the ends until any traces of the white above it vanished. What remained was only a dark ebony color that was as black as ink for the last few inches of hair that looked like paintbrushes against the sparkling snow that was like a blank canvas waiting to be turned into a beautiful work of art.

The look of absolute shock and stunned confusion on Jack's face would have been almost comical had the situation not been so serious.

From his original position up on the small cliff overlooking the lake he had been unable to see the little girl's hair clearly and had just taken the white he'd seen as flakes of the steadily falling snow that had covered her small form. But now that he was up close and he could clearly see that the top half of her hair was completely snow white

Exactly like his.

A few small streaks of silver that gleamed in the moonlight being the only difference between the two aside from the fact that hers somehow darkened into a stained charcoal black at the ends.

And it was then he was finally able to notice just how cold her skin felt, or rather, how normal her skin felt.

Her skin was cold as the ice they were of the lake they were sitting on. She was absolutely freezing and Jack maintained enough conscious thought apart from the rest of his mind that was completely freaking out to question just how in the hell she wasn't shivering. Her skin actually felt normal to him, and that was enough to increase his panic level by about 90%.

She was freezing, but to him it felt like her temperature was exactly the same as his. The fact that that temperature was about that of a frozen corps nearly gave him a heart attack and at this point he was actually thanking MiM he was already dead.

The girl's dangerously low body temperature combined with just how pale her skin was that was such a resemblance of his it was almost uncanny and Jack's mind was doing backflips as it tried to rationalize just what he was seeing.

Unintelligent words fell from his tongue from the shock and confusion that was making his brain act like a hamster on a spinning wheel. "W-what in the-"

"Mmmmmm…"

Jack gasped, cutting himself off as his already wide eyes somehow managing to go even wider and shot back down to the face of the young girl just as a small moan broke through the deafening silence of the moonlit clearing.

He moved his arms to secure the little girl as she suddenly began to stir in her sleep, opening his mouth to speak but remaining silent as once again his voice seemed to die in his throat. She turned and twisted in his arms, seeming to try and move closer to the winter spirit as she curled into him and her hand came up to lightly take hold of the front of his hoodie.

The little girl's peaceful expression vanished and her face scrunched in distress as if she were in the middle of some kind of nightmare and Jack unconsciously held her closer when a small whimper rose from her throat.

Jack startled, finding himself panicking for reasons he couldn't even hope to explain as her whimper quickly gave way to a choked little sob. "N-no! No it's OK, it's OK don't cry." He stuttered as a small rim of tears began to pool at the rims of her closed eyes.

For only a moment he again froze in place, his body going stiff as a brief memory of his sister suddenly shot through his mind.

She had come home one day, sniffling and crying while trying to keep quiet and remain inconspicuous so that he wouldn't notice her tears or the mud on her dress. However, he missed absolutely nothing when it came to his little sister and had immediately gone to her to ask what had happened. She told him how some of the older boys in the village had been picking on her, calling her a baby and then pushing her into the mud.

To say that Jack was furious would be the understatement of the last three centuries. The glare he was sending to the wall as he pulled her into a tight hug would have set the house on fire had it been any more intense. However his anger was quickly smothered by the sound of his little sisters crying- though it would later return with a vengeance later on when he would go out to find the boys who had done this to his sister and give each of them a lovely little black eye that would last for the next three weeks.

Jack had forced himself to put his anger aside for a while, picking up his little sister and carrying her to the small room at the back of the cabin they shared and held her on his lap while telling her stories to take her mind off of what had happened.

They had played a few made up games, talked, joked around and told more stories about dragons, princesses, knights and fairies until she had finally forgotten about the older boys making fun of her and fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Jack had always been able to do that, to make his little sister smile and stop crying whenever she was sad or scared by making her laugh, chasing away the Boogeyman she was sure was hiding under the bed and simply just holding her until she finally stopped crying and wanted to play again.

Just like he was doing right now.

Jack suddenly shook his head, snapping back to reality and banishing those memories into the back of his mind to focus on the situation at hand. He didn't have time to be thinking of that right now!

Another small whimper escaped from the girl's throat as she gripped his hoodie tighter in her hand and Jack's attention completely returned to her.

"No, no, no it's OK. You're gonna be alright. Everything's alright." He said hurriedly but soothingly as possible to attempt to calm her down, forgetting the fact she was pretty much unconscious and probably couldn't hear him.

His soothing didn't do anything to calm the child though and she tossed and turned even more while he attempted to keep a secure hold on her and keep her off of the freezing ice.

Jack was internally panicking as his mind desperately raced to figure out what he should be doing right now, repeatedly flashing back to mental images and memories of his sister as he tried to get the girl to stop crying like had all those years ago in his past life with little avail.

The child in his arms was slowly beginning to curl into herself as whatever nightmare she must have been having went on and he found himself making the silent promise that when this was all over he was going to find the Boogeyman and freeze him to the ceiling of his own bloody caves.

The little girl fussed and struggled in his arms as if she were trying to fight something off or run away from it- whatever it was- and Jack had to secure his hold on her more than once to keep from dropping her back onto the ice while keeping his eyes locked on her face and away from the rest of her as more of his rational mind was able to regain control.

It wasn't like had never seen anything like that before, he had to help dress his younger sister and even give her baths when she was little but there was still the part of his mind that demanded his eyes don't look down at her and he briefly questioned how she could even be out here with no clothes on.

Though in all retrospect that question shouldn't have been as close to the top of the list as it was at the moment.

Small sobs and whimpers escaped her and her face scrunched as if she were in pain, the rim of unshed tears growing beneath her tightly closed eyes as her breathing began to quicken rapidly. "No! No it's OK!" Jack yelled as she started threshing in his arms.

Air came in and out of the girl's lungs in quick, sporadic breaths. Making Jack's heart nearly shatter like glass in his chest as his panic continued to rise, only managing to nearly critical when a sudden shriek of terror ripped itself from her throat and echoed through the forest.

Jack cringed as the sudden scream made his ears ring and an actual shiver ran down his spine. He again grabbed onto her shoulder and shook her, more roughly then before in a desperate attempt to wake her up as she continued to scream and cry. "Everything's alright! Please you have to wake up! Please wake up!"

Once more she merely continued to struggle in her sleep, remaining trapped in whatever hellish nightmare was plaguing her dreams and somewhere in his subconscious mind he was wondering where the hell Sandy was right now.

Isn't he supposed to prevent this sort of thing?! His mind screamed over the sound of the child's.

But there was no dream or nightmare sand above her head. There wasn't anything. Whatever was causing her such distress must have been something else, and whatever it was must have been absolutely horrible if it was making her scream like this as her body actually began to tremble in his arms.

The high pitched shrieks echoed hauntingly through the forest, resonating off of the shining icicles that hung from the bare trees and the surface of the lake.

Jack's eyes closed tightly and he held the girl as close as he could as the noise stabbed into him like a steel blade and made his ears ring painfully. His breath again died in his throat as his panic rose and his heart slammed against is chest as if it were trying to rip its way out of him. Pain shot down his neck as his head pounded and his jaw clenched like a shut bear trap as his own breathing began to pick up pace and freezing cold air shot in and out of his lungs.

Thoughts were racing through his head so rapidly that he couldn't even tell what they were as they were drowned out by the little girl's loud cries, the tears riming her tightly closed eyes finally falling to stream down her face before trickling onto the mirror like surface of the frozen lake and soaking into the frost covered blue fabric of Jack's hoodie.

The Guardian of fun quickly felt whatever kind of control he had over the situation, over his emotions, his thoughts, his body, over anything that he had left sense he had left the North Pole after his body had suddenly burst into intangible flames.

His mind went foggy as the only think he was able to register was the horrid screeching that filled his ears and made him feel like his head was going to explode while his lungs throbbed painfully from the staggered breaths that was making his body tremble.

He didn't know what was happening, he couldn't think, he couldn't move and he could hardly breathe as he desperately tried to block out the sound of the small child's screaming that had become like something out of some kind of twisted horror movie and he didn't even realize what he was doing as his mind suddenly snapped and a scream of his own was ripped from his throat and tore through the air.

"EMMA WAKE UP!"

Jack's eyes shot wide open the second those words left his mouth as his heart dropped like a rock into the pit of his stomach.

His breath died on his tongue as his mind registered what he had just said and the words echoed through the trees and he felt his blood run cold as he suddenly froze in place. It repeated over and over again in his head like a broken record as he stared off into the distance in stunned and petrified shock, his mind coming to a crashing halt.

Time itself once more seemed to freeze, the world going still as a deafening silence fell over the clearing that lasted for what felt like an eternity.

If someone were to ask Jack how long he remained like that he wouldn't be able to give an answer, every second that ticked by felt like a thousand years to him and suddenly his 300 years as a spirit didn't seem nearly as long as he once thought they were.

He didn't know long he was frozen like that, and he would never know just how long he would have remained in that position. Because his attention was violently ripped back into the reality he wasn't honestly sure if he wanted to go back to.

"Mmmhhhhh…"

Jack's eyes shot down to stare at the girl as his mind finally returned to a fully conscious state and he was able to finally notice that her screaming had stopped.

The little girl was no longer thrashing in his arms, instead her hands returning to grab tightly onto the front of his hoodie as the stream of tears that were trickling down her face began to slow and Jack once again gained the ability to breath.

His chest heaved slightly as he breathed a sigh of relief he hadn't even known he'd been holding. The child's screams were replaced with tiny sobs and whimpers every now and again that mad her hold tighter onto the winter spirit as she tried to pull herself closer to him.

For just the briefest moment Jack's thoughts shot back to his sister, but he almost immediately began shaking his head harshly to banish the mental images he was getting into the back of his mind before another small moan escaped the little girl and he again looked down at her. Freezing in place and feeling a slight return in his earlier panic at exactly what would happen if she awoke despite the fact that that's exactly what he had been trying to do sense he had gotten to her.

"Mhhhh…" Jack's eyes widened slightly as she murmured in her sleep and her grip on his hoodie tightened again as she held onto him as if he were a life line.

And for what had to be the thousandth time in the past 24 hours his breath was seemingly strangled in his throat as the little girl's eyes slowly fluttered open.


End file.
